Off Course-On Target

PhotoSynth: Mashups of Our Collective Intelligence via Photos

I don’t know about the rest of you who have your own blogs, but I seem to add many more items to my list of things to write about than I get around to finishing, so my list just grows. Here is one item that I am finally catching up on and which I feel even stronger about than when I was first writing it up several months ago.

I've found a particularly compelling example of the power of mashups. Here is one of those capabilities that you think you understand quickly and then, as you think about it more, you come up with whole new possibilities on how to make use of it. Truly an enabling technology for me!

Intrigued?  I’m referring to the recent release of a combined set of tools (in itself a mashup) called “Photosynth,” which was developed at the University of Washington and by Microsoft Research. Photosynth can take a large collection of photos gathered through a browser search for example, analyze them for similarities, and display them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space with each of the individual photos properly registered to their respective location in the 3D model.

For example, type in the word “Notre Dame, grab all the photos that come up, and run them through Photosynth, which will then display them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space.

As is often the case, seeing is believing, so I strongly encourage you to first take a few minutes (7:42 to be precise) to watch this video of a TED Talk given last year (2007) by Blaise Aguera y Arcas, one of the main developers of the technology,

Photosynth provides an enormous enhancement of automated registration and metadata tagging, finding the commonality of images, the creation of these 3D models, and the network effect that comes from combining photos from any source. As you begin to understand it better, start to imagine how powerful this new means of creating 3D models from existing information (photos) is, and how it enables design to start with what is already in existence and then work from there, by subtracting and adding to it.

Among other things, this type of technology enables you to zoom in from “outer space” down to earth using tools such as Google Earth and MS Virtual Earth, and then when you get to ground or street level, you can start looking around any area with not just satellite imagery but the added information from thousands or millions of photos from “you and I” that are posted up on any of the many online photo storage services.

Think about this for a minute, and you'll start to understand that this means we can now go INSIDE of buildings by “seeing” things through all the photos which are stitched together to create these 3D models and have each photo registered in the right place.

Watch the video clip below to see a fascinating depiction of a scenario where Photosynth is used to help solve a crime.

 

How could this form of a mashup-creating tool be applied to teaching and learning? You and your students could build some amazing history, geography, art, or other learning resources on the fly on an as-needed basis. You could reconstruct a field trip after the fact or set out on a field trip with the express purpose of capturing a location of interest, and then you could construct these highly detailed models from all the photos. Just imagine the new collections (or “synths” as they might be called) that would start showing up by the thousands and then millions as this kind of technology catches on.

Best of all, you can do this right now.  Download Photosynth and take it out for a spin!

The most powerful takeaway for me is that the merging of individual bits of knowledge—in this case photos—creates both better and unexpected new results, such as 3D models and a new form of collective intelligence. The information one can glean or discover within is a huge step forward in human knowledge. Take some time to both wander around in some of these examples and ponder these potential of new developments.

Google Oceans: Another wish comes true!

While I  can neither take credit for nor claim any influence on Google's recent announcement, I'm pleased to say that some of the things I wished for last year in my posting "New Perspectives; Looking Down and Under" are about to come true!  In that posting, I wished that we would soon have similar capabilities as those provided by Google Earth and Google Sky, but these would vary in that they would look down and under to the earth's oceans and seas. Well, the title of this posting pretty much says it all, and you can read about it in the WebWare article "Google Diving into 3D mapping of Oceans".

Google Ocean (the name is tentative), shares similar goals, as well as the potential of increased collaboration, mass contribution, and "networking" that Google Earth and Google Sky present.  See my previous posts "New Perspectives: Looking Up" and "New Perspectives: The Third Wave" for more details and context about how powerful this can be. These views were summed up in the article:

"In addition to the 'wow factor" Google Ocean will no doubt have for amateur oceanographers, marine enthusiasts, and anyone fascinated by the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the project has the potential to promote more collaboration and advance research."

They also reflect my previous comments about how little we know about the 70% of our planet that is covered by the seas:

"'We hope that one of the outcomes of Google Ocean will be an understanding of how much remains to be explored,' said Miller of Scripps. 'We know far more about the surface of Mars from a few weeks of radar surveying in orbit than we know of the bottom of the ocean after two centuries.'"

Unfortunately, Google Oceans is not yet released, and Google is not saying much officially yet.  I'll be watching for the first chance to start using this new capability, and let you know as soon as it happens.  Since I live full time at sea now, this announcement is particularly relevant and practical for me. I already use Google Earth extensively for surface information, such as exploring a port or anchorage I'm about to put into.  In addition to my charts of the area, the photos and the ability to fly over the area before I get there have made a huge difference in terms of safety and in my confidence for sailing to new places, especially at night or  in poor weather with low visibility.  But I suspect that many of you would have similar fascination with the earth's oceans and be just as anxious to learn more. Perhaps some of you will have research or other information to contribute, and we can add yet another way in which mass contribution and the power of networking helps us all get better at getting better.

This announcement about Google Oceans is yet another great example of the power of wishes and how they often do come true (you might want to read about another wish come true in my recent posting "The Future is about Winning!", which highlighted the wish that turned into Pangea Day).

Although we may want to be careful what we wish for, I could not be more serious or sincere about my wish that you'll keep believing in the power of wishing and do some of your own!  I'll continue to share some of mine. I'm also interested in knowing what are some of YOUR wishes for positive change.

Musical Snowflakes Continue to Fall All Around Us

The world of music continues to be one of the richest sources of examples for the Snowflake Effect, where mass personalization, mass customization, mass contribution are all available to try.

The list of examples continues to grow exponentially.  A "Do It Yourself/ Build Your Own" model calls for a radical redesign, and this is what most products and services will need to adopt if they expect to survive in the future.

If you haven't tried using this aspect of mass personalization in the music services area, I'd recommend you check out the "Social Music Overview" page from TechCrunch for a list of options and a brief overview of each. Then, to best understand and evaluate the experience and the potential, you really need to try it yourself. 

See if you think that there is no turning back now. The genie is out of the bottle and there is no putting it back!  The vector of mass personalization and the Snowflake Effect is inevitable and will become the expectation that we have for most products and services, because we now know it is possible—a great thing from my perspective. But let me know your reactions and experiences as well.

Right now though, I'd like to bring a few of the newer developments and advancements from the world of music to your attention. 

Slacker isn't!

My first example is Slacker, and contrary to its name (in many cultures the word "slacker" refers to someone who does not try or work very hard), this site is a real winner. It's currently my top pick for the Snowflake Effect as its applied to music. 

You'll find a good overview of Slacker in this PC Mag review. On TechCrunch, you'll see that the founders of Slacker (each of whom is an online music veteran) have very big ambitions indeed.  In addition to their Web-based music service, which will compete with others such as Pandora, MOG, and Last.FM, Slacker is about to release (Dec 2007) a new portable player, which is reviewed here and is pictured on the left. This new portable player is WiFi-enabled, so you can have music streamed right to it, and synch it with your desktop and music collection. They have also announced a satellite car kit so you can have this music wherever you are. 

One notable addition over most other music personalization services is that the desktop version of Slacker (Windows only for now unfortunately) enables you to incorporate your own music library in the mix. What most impressed me, however, was the well designed interface that enables new degrees of personalization.  I'm referring to the overall human computer interface, not just the way it looks. 

Slacker is impressive and a significant improvement over other services. You can do as much or as little customization as you like quickly and easily. And no matter where you leave off in this customization, Slacker works to the maximum degree possible.

For example, my former favorite, Pandora, requires that you provide constant feedback by indicating that you like or don't like each song. If you stop providing this feedback, then it stops playing after an hour or two. This is all very understandable since it can't continue to improve without some additional input, so it knows if the music is continuing to be just right for you at just that time or not. However, most of us are unwilling or unable to constantly provide this feedback for every song while it is playing—at least not by the current norm of manually clicking a thumbs up or thumbs down button or a 1-5 star rating.  This method is too interruptive on a continuous basis. 

Slacker, in contrast to all the others I know, is set up to do the best it can with however much feedback you give it. Obviously the more you give, the more you get. However, that Slacker will continue to work very hard at playing music that is as personalized as possible to the information you've given it is a huge improvement.

I'm very big on the "discovery factor" of this kind of personalization, and this is another big plus of Slacker, which is why I'm using this as my current best example. As you use the Slacker interface to personalize the music, you are constantly exposed to more and more alternatives. Yet this does not overwhelm you with too much choice, because you can take it or leave it. Again, Slacker maximizes as much feedback as you've given it and keeps on playing great personalized music.  One particularly valuable new function is the ability for you to set the "discoverability" factor to any degree you like.  This is nicely summarized in the PC Mag review:

"To tweak your listening experience further, Slacker provides four ingenious fine-tuning options. Artist Discovery lets you control how much variety you'll get beyond the chosen artists (a lot, a little, or none at all), and Popularity determines whether you get "fringe" song selections, "hits," or something in between. The Favorites tool determines how often the selected station plays those songs you've tagged as favorites. Finally, there's Year, which narrows the selection to Classic, Older, Recent, or Current. (You can leave all these options set to Auto if you'd rather not get so specific.) Neither Last.fm nor Pandora offer anywhere near this kind of fine-tuning; the most you can do is vote yea or nay on the current song selection (which you can do in Slacker as well)."

Social.FM

Want more examples of the richness of the music world?  Check out the just released Social.fm, which is (as you might guess) a widget designed for  music sharing within social networks, such as FaceBook. Read the Nov. 12th Webware review "Social.fm rolls out fancy looking Facebook app, DIY widgets for everyone else" for a good overview of this new service. In addition to a nicely integrated FaceBook version, Social.fm has also announced that they are working on integrating better with with Google's OpenSocial initiative.  This is worth keeping an eye on IF and as OpenSocial creates a standard that enables interoperability for widgets across all applications and OS.  This is still a long way off and somewhat of a long shot, but it's very much worth rooting for and following up on.

Social.fm's announcement of Social.fm Mobile is also great example of convergence. This technology turns your smartphone into a music player for everything from your own music collection to digital radio and podcasts,

So, are you Off Course from your usual thinking, and where you are looking?  Most likely. But On Target? Even more likely!  Enjoy your experiential learning and I'll be back soon with more.

Adding Arrows to our Communications Quiver

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Well, seems that the Pecha Kucha (pronounced peh-chak-cha) 20 x 20 format for slide-based presentations is really catching on! Pecha Kucha restricts you to exactly 20 graphic slides for exactly 20 seconds each, which amounts to a total of six minutes and 40 seconds.

I received a lot of responses from all over the world about my most recent posting on this topic "Power of 20/20 PowerPoint", and after my most recent PK presentation in Chicago, USA on Tuesday night.  I've also been contacted by an author in Japan who is putting together a book on Pecha Kucha, so stay tuned for more.

Interestingly, this topic exemplifies some of the other topics we've been discussing at Off Course - On Target, such as hype cycles and decision support. So in response to several of the questions I received and with some concern for other trends I'm seeing surrounding the adoption of this Pecha Kucha 20x20 model, I thought I'd provide the following additional thoughts and suggestions.

Life is a giant Boolean add function!

As with most formats, Pecha Kucha (PK) is best used as a new way to present ideas, assist with communication, etc. We need be aware of the hype aspect surrounding PK. I've found it quite common for people to fall in love with a new "thing" and start to insist that it be used in all circumstances. I've even seen whole companies or groups make it a policy that PK be the only format allowed! Of course, in due time, they will change back to a more balanced approach, following the natural flow of the "hype cycle" I described in an earlier post.

We humans seem to have this built-in tendency that whenever some new big thing comes along, we immediately react by focusing on all the "old" things that are now "dead", eliminating or subtracting them from our lives. Wasn't TV supposed to kill radio? Wasn't e-Learning going to "kill" the need for teachers, books, etc.? If we can learn from history though (let's hope!), we'll find that we rarely completely eliminate anything. Life is like a giant Boolean add function!

For me, PK is a fabulous new choice that we have in our arsenal of tools for expression. Just as we are beginning to learn (well some of us are) how to make a good decision about when to use e-mail, when to use a phone call, when to use Instant Message or Twitter, when to meet in person or send a handwritten note (remember those?), we need to be better at knowing WHEN PK is the best choice for a given situation and skilled at using the PK format well.

New and innovative ideas and technology are often very disruptive, so there is no question that they cause change and upheaval, but they rarely eliminate what has gone before. Television has certainly changed the role of radio, but when I checked as recently as this morning, radio was a VERY viable medium, and one that is in fact enjoying a great amount of innovation and growth. Consider, for example, HD radio, satellite radio such as XM radio and Sirius and Internet-based radio, such as Pandora, Last.FM, and Public Radio International (PRI).

Therefore, just as instant messaging (IM) didn't eliminate e-mail or phone calls, neither will PK eliminate more "traditional" forms of presentations. Instead, PK will help us improve one of the most powerful and requisite skills we have and need—the ability to communicate effectively, and to share our ideas. And if we can really learn from history, we will skip right over the early phases of the hype cycle and get right onto the "slope of enlightenment" and "plateau of productivity stages!

Getting Started with Pecha Kucha

I suggest following these guidelines for those getting started:

• Stick to the PK model of exactly 20 slides, automatically timed (not in control of presenter) for exactly 20 seconds each. PowerPoint has a built-in timer function that can manage this.
• Limit the preamble or explanation to an absolute minimum (30 seconds?) before the 20 second count begins and before the first slide comes up. If you need more than that, you've missed the point of the PK model!
• Only use great graphics for the slides. No bullet points, no text, no cheesy clip art. I recommend photographs that can either be created by the PK presenter or are increasingly easy to find on the web at photo services such as Flickr (mind the copyrights and licenses, please). Providing the assistance of people who have a good eye can be a big help.  As with many things, putting a PK presentation together is a big part of the fun and the challenge.
• Go after a range of presenters from those who are experts or at least prolific presenters to those who you never hear from or who dread having to give a presentation. My experience is that everyone benefits tremendously from tapping into the spectrum between these two extremes.
• Put as much thought as possible into creating a conducive environment for this style. While a standard audience/presenter format with stages, podiums, and seats can certainly still work, the nature of PK is that it is very mentally stimulating, so having a venue that puts people closer together and encourages discussions before, during, and after the individual presentations is very helpful. 
• Consider turning your PK gathering into a very social event such as with a club or pub type of atmosphere—casual chairs, floor seating, and drinks provided. At some of our Autodesk events, we even created a version of martinis we call "Pecha-katini" to help lubricate the conversation!  If you check out the PK web site you'll also see that this very social form of PK is happening in cities all over the world, and you may want to attend one.  Lots of variations possible, be creative!
• Use standard, though often ignored, good practices for writing or speaking. Talk about what you know. Even more so, talk about something you are passionate about. This can still include "serious" or business topics, but can also include more personal interests such as hobbies, life experiences, former careers, or things that drive you.

Basic Benefits

Although all of us can appreciate the value that comes from reducing presentations from their typical 60 minutes or more down to six minutes and 40 seconds, I've found even greater value from the PK model in such things as:

• Essence. The PK style forces presenters to really put some deep thought into the absolute essential points they want to convey. With only 20 slides and only 20 seconds to spend on each one, you the presenter have to make what seems like difficult choices (every one of our ideas is great right?!). As a presenter, I find this reduction process very valuable because it tends to help me convert more of my tacit knowledge into explicit forms and helps me make tough but clarifying choices about what the true message really is. For audiences, this kind of critical thinking on the part of the presenter tends to produce much greater value, leaving only valuable "nuggets" of information. I've found, for example, that PK style presentations generate a LOT more discussion afterwards between the audience and the presenters. When used at conferences as an opening evening, PK presentations often become a constant follow-on reference for the remainder of the event... and long afterwards. 
• Graphic communications. Here is a phrase we all know, but seem to practice very little. Most slides have WAY too much text, too many bulleted points, and rarely use effective graphics. Perhaps the PK 20x20 format uses the old adage that  "a picture is worth a 1000 words" to pack so much into every 20 seconds?  Forcing the issue to the extreme by requiring presenters to only use graphics necessitates the thoughtful selection or creation of an image that that effectively captures each of their 20 points. It's not always easy to accomplish, but when done, it is definitely effective.
• Pursuit of passion. As I mentioned in my getting started list above, PK seems to work best and seems to lead presenters to find and speak on topics they really know and really care about.  Isn't that a common trait of just about every great presentation you've ever heard? Yet how often do we sit through presentations that are almost as uninspiring to the presenter as they are to the audience?  I'm not sure I understand just why, but the PK format seems to have a natural affinity that brings out the passion in presenters. It seems to be especially effective for those who rarely make presentations or speak up or who don't think they have much to contribute. PK helps them find their "voice" and acts as a vehicle for transporting their message to others. Powerful stuff!

Serious Play = Serious Fun => Serious Performance Improvement

How might we get even more power out of this fun new format?  Let's develop MANY more styles and formats for this very useful way of sharing and communicating using audio, graphics, slides, etc. 

The point of PK is effective communication, converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, as well as helping to transfer, share, and build upon our ideas and transforming them into reality. Don't we want and need as many choices as possible to accomplish this more effectively?  So let's experiment more with the PK 20x20 format.   

After some initial experience with the PK 20x20 format, start playing with the format. Try to find delightful deviations and innovative improvements—with the end goal of capturing, sharing and creating ideas faster and better. In addition to the obvious choices of trying even fewer slides or using less time per slide (2 slides 2 seconds anyone?), consider breaking outside our self-imposed cognitive boxes on presentations. 

• Who says that there has to be any talking at all? Music perhaps?
• How could you incorporate video into this type of format? 
• How about a "game" (serious fun) where 20 slides are chosen by the audience or someone other than the presenter who has to then say or do something in 20 seconds to add value to each slide?
• How about 20 people doing one PK presentation, where one person speaks per 20 second slide?  Now THAT would be an improvement on the snoozer "panel presentations" we've all been through, wouldn't it?!

We had a great example of just this kind of serious play and serious fun on Tuesday at the Autodesk Leadership Summit I mentioned earlier. Pete Kelsey **, a good colleague at Autodesk, along with fellow Autodesker Andy Ramm, did a great job of this kind of out-of-the box thinking and experimenting with PK. They created and delivered a PK on the history of blues music (one of my favorites!), which was a particularly fitting and relevant topic since we were doing this in the current home of the blues—Chicago.

But not only did they do their PK as a duo, Andy did all his "talking" via his guitar, as is typical in blues music, while Pete provided the spoken explanations. They still followed the same 20x20 format with some great images of major blues artists and evocative images of the life and times that produced this musical genesis of one of the most popular music styles today. But they also added the power of music, not only to demonstrate the topic (blues music), but to communicate their message to the audience. It was very effective and a great example of the type of experimentation that we need to do more of. 

I hope this posting encourages you to try out this format and have some serious fun playing with it. What ideas can you can come up with for ways to experiment, extend, and improve  on this fun and effective presentation format? Share them with the rest of us so they can become  arrows in our quiver of ideas that we can use to practice being on target, and help us make more  effective use of our collective intelligence!

 

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** Pete Kelsey has a blog that you should check out if you have any interest in civil engineering, roads, bridges, geography, mapping, etc.  His blog goes by the great title of "The Dirt: Map it, Move it, Manage it, Roll in it". In addition to his GIS topics and technology, you might also find it valuable for the experimenting that Pete does in this blog with things like self-created video. Pete is a fellow world traveler, spending most of his time on the road going to some truly interesting locations (Easter Island, Guam, and Seoul in the past few weeks, for example) and packing a really unique point of view wherever he goes. Definitely worth checking out.

The Future is Surfacing

For the past few years, I’ve been talking about digital surfaces predominating our future, and my postings, “The Old Medium becomes the New Content” and “P-Learning: Fill up your Tank and your Head?” pointed out some good examples of this trend. So you can imagine how excited I was to see today’s announcement of Microsoft’s ventures in this direction and I’m particularly excited about the name they chose.  It may not be a cool product name but it's hot stuff for me!

At the "D: All Things Digital" conference on May 29th, Microsoft finally revealed a well-kept 5-year secret, code named “Milan”, and now unveiled as Microsoft Surface. This technology is part hardware and part software and some are referring to it as a “Table PC”. Read that term carefully—that’s TABLE as in “desk” and is not to be confused with the one with the extra "t", the Tablet PC, though it too may also benefit from this surface technology down the road.

The hardware behind it is fairly straightforward, though a feat in itself, because it is a large multi-touch screen or display, typically about 30 inches in size, which is mounted horizontally, facing up like the surface of a small table. To have the imagery display directly on the touch screen required a combination of angled side projection and touch screen technology.

Of course, hardware without software doesn’t do much. Add Microsoft Surface software into the equation, and things get really interesting. The software makes it into a full multi-touch display with lots of built-in features for gestures, recognition, etc. “Multi-touch” means that the screen responds to almost any number of simultaneous touches. You can do simple finger painting using up to all ten fingers at once, or perform more complex manipulations using multiple fingers on both hands, such as stretching out an image or window, or rearranging and moving windows around with your hands.

You can also “pass” things that are on the screen over to someone else. Many individual users can physically fit around the “table”, interacting with the surface simultaneously. One additionally interesting fact is that Microsoft will produce both the hardware and the software, something they are already doing, for example, with the Xbox 360 and the Zune music player.

It’s been quite a news item, so there are lots of links about it. Here are the ones that I thought give the best understanding and demonstrations:

• The Microsoft Surface site has a full complement of videos, pictures and specs.
• ZDNet has a demonstration of Microsoft Surface and a Ziff Davis interview with the product marketing manager, Mark Folger.
• TechCrunch posted an announcement "Microsoft Announces Surface Computer".
• USA Today’s more detailed report “Table is Set for Computing” has some good examples of applications.
• CNet News provides an in-depth write-up called “Microsoft hopes 'Milan' table PC has magic touch”
• ZDNet posted a background story on “How the ‘Milan’ table PC was born”.
• Even the New York Times got into it with multiple articles such as the one appropriately titled "Much Ado About Microsoft's Surface Computer"

Of course, such multi-user multi-touch screens are not new, nor are they something Microsoft invented, and Jeff Han is often cited for his excellent research and development of multi-person, multi-touch technology and interfaces. It is well worth as much time as you can to look over his site. Jeff has a popular demo, which you can see below:

And if you like that one, have a look at a similarly fascinating demo from Jeff that Fast Company posted called “Remapping the Universe”. Jeff has also recently started a company with the great name of  “Perceptive Pixel” to help commercialize and develop his work, so let’s hope we’ll be seeing much more of this technology move from the lab to our tables. Fast Company also has a very good in-depth interview with Jeff called "Can't Touch This" that is recommended reading.

When you check out some of the demos of Microsoft Surface, you’ll also notice some fascinating additional capabilities such as the ability to:

• Use some physical objects to perform tasks, such painting on the surface using a real paintbrush.
• Use gestures that are reasonably intuitive, such as the way you would normally work to rearrange things on a table (move them around, stack them), but with the added ability to shrink or expand them, or have them include movement, such as animations and video. If you’ve seen the movie Minority Report, you’ll have the basic idea, and the demos will show you more in a few minutes, so I’d recommend you watch them.
• Have physical objects “tagged” in several ways. For example, a “domino tag” can be attached or embedded into the physical objects, which are then recognized by the surface when you set them on it, and they can also communicate with the surface and computer to trigger further actions. This really starts to mix and mingle the physical “real world” with the digital virtual one. For example, you can read or recognize credit cards, loyalty cards, drink glasses, and paint brushes.

Initially, Microsoft Surface technology is planned for use in businesses and high traffic areas, such as airports, cafes, and restaurants, casinos, etc., and comes with initial pricing to match—estimated at about US$10,000. However, we can expect that this technology will follow the same inevitable and rapid reduction in cost as other technologies, and will see equally rapid increases in performance.

The upcoming Apple iPhone and the some of the new Tablet PC screens, such as the new IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad X60, also have multi-touch displays, and are designed for the mass market, so they will introduce more of us to this new type of interaction and interface.

Therefore, NOW is the time for us to prepare and think about how we could utilize this type of technology in the workplace, the home, and the classroom.

• Think about using it to interact with maps.
• Imagine every desktop surface in your meeting rooms and classrooms having this ability.
• Imagine walls that are huge multi-touch surfaces!
• Rather than a computer on every desk, what if every desk were a computer?

Add to this vision some other recent announcements, such as the new addition to Google Maps called “Street View”, which allows you to pick any spot on a map and get a fully immersive set of 3D images that you can control. Microsoft’s “Photosynth” technology takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space. Imagine working with these on a tabletop surface that you, your friends, family, students and co-workers are sitting around and can now interact with, rearrange, zoom in on, and explore together.

I’m particularly interested in the area of human computer interaction, and specifically, bringing our human “action” (such as that of our hands) much closer to the action on the display. When you think about it, the gap is currently very wide, given our reliance on keyboards, mice, trackballs, and game pads. For this reason, I’m still a big fan of tablet PCs and believe they are still on track to hit a tipping point of popularity and ubiquity in the next few years.  As mentioned above, the new ThinkPad X60 tablet PC's have an optional multi-touch screen, so the trajectory continues to be clear to me.

With Microsoft Surface, our hands and our gestures are now right up against the display images, about as close as we’ve come so far to being one and the same. Next, we will break through the limitations of two-dimensional devices and begin to have three-dimensional representations and haptic (force) feedback so that we can feel the objects and models, and begin to sculpt “virtual clay” with our hands.

As additional dimensions and senses (such as smell, texture, time, locations, and sound) are added to this equation, the whole computer interface issue will increasingly fade and eventually become transparent.
Then we can focus on what we are doing and the results we are trying to achieve. We can use our abilities to visualize and express our ideas for others, to do “digital prototyping”, and experience things before they are “real”. Of course, ultimately we will continue to blur the distinction between what’s real and what’s virtual, and literally redefine what “real” even means.

So here is another set of examples where powerful new things are equal parts exciting and frightening. However as I like to point out, WE are the decision makers in all this, and it is up to us to make sure that the future that “surfaces” is one we really want and like!

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This is GREAT Learning Design, is it “Knot”?

One of my passions is sailing, and recently I’ve been preparing my steel mono hull sailboat for some long-term offshore sailing and discovery. I named the boat Learnativity, because one of my motivations is to experience some serious learning as I prepare for and embark upon this new adventure. To date, the boat is certainly living up to it's name!.

Sailboats require lots of ropes, so knots become a very important and significant part of your life aboard. I was a boy scout once (actually a Queen Scout, as they are called in Canada) and so I used to know how to tie lots of knots, but I’ve certainly forgotten most of them. This is the forgetting part, not the UNLearning part!  So I was delighted to find some assistance with learning and practicing various knots in the form of a web site called Animated Knots created by Alan Grogono who is known as “Grog”.

Whether you care about knots or not (sorry, couldn’t resist), I would STRONGLY encourage you to check out this site, because it is a fantastic form of great content design and design for learning. As with many powerful designs, this one is elegantly simple and is something that can be easily implemented and used for a wide variety of skills and applications.

Alan has provided a simple way for the learner (in this case, someone who ties knots) to see very clearly how the knot is tied. He breaks up the process into individual steps that he has photographed, but instead of laying these out as static graphics with supporting text (as I suspect most learning resources would do), he came up with a very smart and simple layout and method that shows each step AND lets the you see each step in sequence or as a fluid animation. 

He does this with a series of step-by-step photos, displayed in a single window. A set of numbered boxes is displayed below the window.  Rolling over a box brings up the photo for each step one by one.  By running the cursor over the series of numbers, you can tie and untie the knot at any speed you like, focus on just one or two steps of the process, and pause anywhere along the line.  You can also choose from a fast and slow automated animation that is a repeating loop of each step.  Smart, simple and it works!

As usual, pictures are much better than words for both tying knots and understanding this model, so check out this example of how to tie a bowline, a very handy knot for creating a secure loop at the end of a rope, or on any point along a rope or line. And for all you overachievers, check out how to tie a bowline with one hand!

I imagine that we can all benefit from knowing a few knots. The site has knots for boating, climbing, fishing, scouting, search and rescue, household, and decorative applications.

It’s VERY much worth checking out. You’ll “knot’ only learn how to tie some knots, but you’ll see a very effective way of designing content to help people understand and learn. What other applications can you imagine for this great design? 

As always, be sure to send me your comments, reactions and experiences.

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P-Learning: Fill up your tank...and your head?

I’m finally off the road long enough to get out on my Harley to enjoy both the great weather that we’ve been having lately in sunny California and some of the great winding back roads you can see in this picture. However, even at almost 50 miles to the gallon (or about 5 liters per 100k as I would have said when I lived in Europe), enjoying all those lovely miles means that I have to stop to fill up the gas tank once in a while.

So there I was, calmly filling up the Harley with a whole 4 gallons of gas when a voice from above started to talk to me. No, no, not THAT kind of voice!  I looked up to find a large LCD screen installed on the top of the gas pump. As I sat there filling up my tank, the monitor tried to fill up my head with information someone felt I just had to have.

That’s right folks. Just when you thought there might be some escape, along comes  “Gas Station TV”, offered in this case by the company of the same name. Programming on the pump starts when you put in your credit card and it repeats until you finish your fill up. My other vehicle is a pickup truck with a MUCH larger tank than my Harley, so I expect to hear several loops when I’m filling it up!

Of course, I needed to find out more and sure enough, I found an article on Gearlog called “Watch Pump Top TV at Your Local Gas Station”.

My first experience produced mixed reactions:

• The advertisements (was there any doubt?) were annoyingly frequent and the ratio of ads-to-content was way too high. If they want to be effective and not drive us all away, then they will need to come up with much better marketing models.  Perhaps they could follow the success online by placing the ads off to one side or the bottom and let the content come through the majority of the screen space?

• The sound was too loud!  When the station is busy and every pump is playing a different part of the same loop (the “show” starts when the pump starts), it gets VERY annoying very quickly. 
• It will take a while to settle on what type of content is best for this venue. For example one segment gave the local weather forecast and an updated traffic report. Smart and helpful, so I appreciated that. I could see them adding driving tips, how to get better mileage and an option asking me if I need directions to my next destination.

While I understand that we are a “captive audience” in these situations, smart installations could give us more control, resulting in greater effectiveness. For example, they could provide a volume or mute button to let me control the sound, and they could follow the Web example (most of the time) by not having any sound from advertisements unless I choose to let it play.

However, their biggest opportunity for success would be to let the Snowflake Effect hit these installations. The content would be customized and personalized just for me. For example, since I have to stick my credit card into the machine, it could determine who I am and it could:

• Use some of my chosen preferences to give me more relevant information. 
• Know which vehicle I’m driving (ask me on the touch screen if I have more than one), and provide me with information specific to that vehicle.
• Know the kind of content I’m most interested in during these situations—maybe I’m more interested in the weather than sports scores, or I might want different information depending on the time of day. 
• Offer a large series of content so that I could choose those segments that are relevant for me. Then they could keep showing me new content for as long as I’m there, rather than just repeating the same loop ad nauseam.

Still, like it or not, I imagine that this trend will continue to show up at more stations. If used well, this could be an example of modular learning that is good for both the consumer and the producers.

So, next time you are at the gas station, don’t be frightened by the voice from above (well, maybe be very frightened?). Just look up and see this latest example of the digital surroundings we are living in. Gas Station TV is more evidence of the trend line I’ve covered previously here at Off Course – On Target—the  increasing presence of "digital screens" where literally any surface can become an interactive display. Read more about it in my postings "The Old Medium has become the New Content" (Part 1) and (Part 2).

The upside of living in a market-based economy is that we are the market. Ultimately, we ARE in control, because we can vote with our feet and our wallets. My suggestion? If this trend of almost all surfaces becoming digital interactive displays is inevitable, as I believe it is, then let’s start coming up with ways to use it to our advantage. Let's make them  into another opportunity for learning moments.

In the near future, “Fill ‘er up” may apply not only to your gas tank, but  to your head as well. Just remember… your actual mileage may vary. <g>

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Jumbled Joomla: there is no "B" in Joomla!

In my previous post (April 26) "Wassup with Web 2.0?" I noted two new tools, Joomla! and Zude that I believe to be of significant importance and very much worth having your checking out. Unfortunately, I spelled Joomla! wrong and thus put in the wrong link and directed you to a related but incorrect web site. Mea culpa and my apologies for any confusion.

Joomla! does NOT have a "B" in their name as I had mistyped, so please note that the correct URL is www.joomla.com and name is Joomla!   I've fixed the link now in the blog posting (one of the many benefits of dynamic publishing!) and wanted to alert those of you who may have already tried it and were confused.

I've already had many of you express an interest in both Joomla! and Zude and as I noted in my earlier keynote posting:

"This is NOT an endorsement of either of these applications, but rather to provide you with what I believe to be GREAT examples of the tipping point that is developing around my theme of “MC2(squared): Mass Customization x Mass Contribution”.  Have some “serious fun” spending some time to “play” with both of these and I’m convinced you will start to see how these enable and encourage almost anyone from your grandmother to your 4 year old nephew to be able to be both a content producer and consumer and do it all THEIR way.  I am particularly intrigued by the combination of both these types of “applications” with something like Joomla!! providing the functionality for content management however formal or informal, and something like Zude providing the functionality for assembling just the right stuff, just the right way, just for me.  Keep your eye on these types of functionality and I’ll be reporting more as I do so as well."

I'm particularly looking forward to the official release of Zude tomorrow (May 1st)  If you didn't catch it in the previous post, rather than try to explain Zude I recommend that you check out the ZDNet posting, "Zude’s drag-n-drop Web authoring/remixing make it the Switzerland of the social Web" that this posting with a video interview with Zude founders and a product demo.  AND for those of you who would like to do some experiential learning or "serious play" then be sure to get over to the www.zude.com, have some serious fun with it, and report back with your reactions and responses.
UPDATE:  Can't wait till tomorrow to get started?  Good news, David Berlind over at ZDNet just posted the code (9833) to let you in to the Zude site as an "early adopter" so you can get started RIGHT NOW! David also put up some of his initial reactions and comments which completely match my experience to date and I'd recommend that you read his posting; "Zude offers ZDNet readers early preview code in advance of May 1 beta launch"

In the hope that it will stimulate more of you to share your experiences, here are some of my very brief and very early reactions and thoughts so far:

Joomla!!
• Is intriguing as a powerful, open source “content management system” for the rest of us
• Completely separates content from the “presentation layer”
• Seems to be tremendously flexible in the way almost anyone (low skills like me) can create any form of content and have it show up however you like it
• Works on a “repository” type of model where all of the “articles” (content) and the applets, widgets, etc. are available for you to call up, display, layout or interact with
• enables “rules” to be easily created such as interactions between the individual objects and enable the site to dynamically determine how and what content is displayed for example

Part of my interest in Joomla! is that in the past month, several of my “trusted advisers” have independently decided to start using Joomla!!  Believing in synchronicity and serendipity rather than coincidence, I take great note of this “pattern” as being significant. Having said that, I am also hearing and reading good things about another open source CMS called Drupal and there are many more available as well. I’ve heard from some that Drupal creates much better code and was designed more bottom up as an application, whereas Joomla! is developed more “top down”, meaning that functionality is where they started (doing stuff with content) and then kept building up code by adding features over time.

Zude:
• Is a very new and very different way of working with content. (goes live as of May 1, 2007)
• I’m intrigued by its potential to be a truly universal content aggregator that let’s anyone and everyone have it “just right” and just their way.
• Zude appears to be COMPLETELY independent of the operating system or browser
• AND completely independent of the source of the content that you drag and drop onto your “pages”—anything from content that is from your local hard drive to server based content to web-based content
• Best explanation is probably in this short video and demo

I've always had huge respect and admiration for Alvin Toffler, one of the true futurists of our time and author of prescient books, such as Future Shock and The Third Wave. Toffler coined a great term "ProSumer" to indicate a future he predicted back in the 1960's where we would be both Producers and Consumers at the same time, and I see this coming true here and now. I’m specifically interested in how these two technologies (Zude and Joomla!) might work well together with Joomla! being the choice when we are in “Producer mode” serving as a central CMS for everyone from average individuals up through huge organizations, and then Zude being the tool for “Consumer mode” when I or anyone else is wanting to have more control over the content they are consuming and sharing. All of this enabling what I've been referring to as "The Snowflake Effect" of just the right content at just the right time in just the right way, etc. etc.

What I’m interested in getting from any of you (in all your spare time!) is some initial reactions, technical evaluation and your overall rating of where you would rate each of these relative to their importance for the future and worthiness of more of my and perhaps your time and attention?? Are these important new tools and methods of working with content or nothing new? Will this type of capability be a catalyst for massive change along the lines of how blogs have changed behavior and content? Will this catch on with "the rest of us" from grandparents to grandchildren" or it is just for geeks and the technically proficient?

IF you get any time to have some “serious fun” playing with these I’d be MOST appreciative of your thoughts and reactions. More to follow here on Off Course - On Target as we all get some time to do more of this critical kind of serious play.  See you in the sandbox of life and learning!

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High Resolution Imagery = High Definition Learning?

I am a HUGE fan of public radio, and I listen to it whenever I can. In the US, public radio comes in the form of National Public Radio (NPR) and most countries have a similar form, as well as access to Public Radio International (PRI). Typically these stations are broadcast just about everywhere, so as you’re driving, you can usually pick them up better than most other stations. I find their content to be one of the last sources of balanced and informative broadcasting.

The other day when I was driving in the US, I caught a news story on NPR about a fascinating new joint venture between Google and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) called “Crisis in Darfur”. NPR is very good about posting their content, so you can read more about it and also listen to the original broadcast called “Google Sets Out to Map the Crisis in Darfur”.

If you are a regular reader here at Off Course – On Target, you will recall some previous posts, such as “Mashed up Maps for the Masses” and “Snowflakes Galore at TechFest 2007”, where we looked at ways that maps are benefiting from new technology and techniques that make them highly customized and extremely rich with information. This new initiative between Google and USHMM adds another dimension and is a provocative application of mapping and high-resolution photographic imagery.

Reuters covered this story at “Google to Map Atrocities in Darfur”. As Holocaust Museum director Sara Bloomfield put it:

"The 'Crisis in Darfur' is the first of the museum's 'Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative' that is aimed at providing information on potential genocides early on in the hope that governments and others can act quickly to prevent them.”

I am interested in this not only for this specific situation but also as a chance to see if this form of “high definition learning” will be able to make more of a difference in moving people to action than previous efforts. Unfortunately, history has shown that simply making people aware of such atrocities has had almost no effect on stopping such acts.

This project will assemble photographs, high resolution satellite imagery, data, and eye witness testimony, and use Google Earth technology to make this accessible to over 200 million people around the world who have downloaded the Google Earth software*. They will be able to zoom in on high-resolution imagery to see the destroyed villages and other evidence of the destruction that, to date, the Sudanese government has denied exists.

* If you have not tried Google Earth or Microsoft’s Live Search (an implementation of their Virtual Earth technology) PLEASE do yourself and others around you a favor by trying it NOW! Google Earth does require a download, but this is truly one of those things you have to see and experience in order to believe and understand. Almost everyone I know who has done so has been completely amazed by its capabilities. And if it has been a while since you used it, you should try it as well, since new capabilities and more imagery and resolution is being added daily.

To check out the Darfur imagery, you just need to “fly” and “zoom” your way over to this region (a good lesson in itself for the many who never knew Darfur existed or where it was on the map). You’ll see how the project has put a colored border around the region to catch your attention. Zooming in from there and exploring the area is what this project is all about, so give it a try.

After these initial experiences, consider the profound impact that this readily available technology will have. We can expect to see a multiplier effect and an exponential increase in the volume of photographic data being produced by literally billions of lenses being aimed 24x7 at almost every place on earth.

Keep in mind that this mapping technology not only includes the photographic images steadily streaming out of orbiting satellites, but also the billions of photographs that individuals like you and me are taking. All of us can contribute images from our digital cameras via web galleries from the likes of Flickr, Google’s Picasa, Kodak EasyShare, SmugMug and hundreds of others. Putting this in the context of maps and using location as an underlying interface and structure is proving to be a VERY powerful way of connecting information and intellect— truly creating new knowledge and learning.

Of course, any powerful capability can be used for both good and bad purposes. However the point for us to remember is that the technology is “stupid” and can only be put to the uses and purposes that WE design and develop. So once again, we are both the problem and the solution. I am both hoping and asking that we make the right choice and take the action to ensure that this power is utilized and leveraged for very positive forward progress and benefits.

It remains to be seen if the “Crisis in Darfur” project and this new combination of content and technology will produce new levels of deep and behavior changing learning. But in my opinion, it is a great form of leadership by example. Let’s learn from this example and begin to design and develop other ways of putting this technology to use for increased effectiveness of learning and performance.

What other applications and projects can YOU think of for using this technology?

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Fido for Finding or just for Fools?

Many of you enjoyed the fun posting I made a few weeks ago called “Piracy Going to the Dogs?”. But many of you also thought my comments about Lucky and Flo (the two black Labrador dogs who have been trained to find illegal CDs and DVDs) was my version of an early April Fool’s Day* joke. Far from it!  I was quite serious and so too are the dogs and the people deploying them.

Last week, they chalked up another big success, which you can check out in Monday’s article from Reuters “DVD-busting Dogs Do It Again”. Once again the dogs were able to find things the human experts could not. In this case, they discovered over 150,000 illegal DVDs that were hidden in a secret room the investigators had missed. Apparently the pirates think the dogs are way too good as well and have "put out a hit” on the dogs to be killed and so Lucky and Flo now have their own security force!

While Lucky and Flo were not quite what I had in mind in my recent posting “The Search for Better Finding”, they none the less provide a great example of the end results (finding) winning out over the time we spend searching. As you can see, I didn't call this site "Off Course - On Target" for nothing!

But whether it is dogs or people or technology, here’s to continued progress in our quest to eliminate piracy and dramatically improve our abilities to actually find what we’re looking for.

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* For those of you unfamiliar with the fun tradition of April Fool’s Day, sometimes called “All Fools Day” (or in France they call it "Poisson d'Avril" or "April Fish"),  here is a quick history and explanation. Believing as I do that laughter is one of the best medicines, you may want to check out:

• “The Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes of All Time”
• Elliott Masie’s most recent Learning Trends posting #439 - Updates on Learning, Business & Technology. This is his version of an April Fool’s Day joke for those interested in learning, education, and training. And if you haven't done it already,  I HIGHLY recommend that you subscribe to Elliott’s Trends Email.

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