6 by7 Reports

Free webconferencing?

Hi,

Elluminate has just announced free web conferencing for up to three users.  Check it out at http://www.elluminate.com/vroom.

You can also see a 5 minute recording of how a chemistry professor uses Elluminate and a Tablet PC together to have open office hours here.

Take care,

Gary

2006 New Hampshire Family Support Conference

Hi,

The 2006 New Hampshire Family Support conference will be held the weekend of May 5, 6, and 7th at the Sheraton Tara in Nashua, New Hampshire.  This conference focuses on family and community support for people with disabilities.

The theme of this years conference is "The Heart of Family Support - 17 Years and Still Beating Strong."  It is focusing on the challenges that New Hamsphire has (and the leadership it brings to the table) about delivering effective and economic services to build stronger families.

The beginnings of a press backgrounder can be found here (a media alert will be posted soon as well).  It is an excellent opportunity for local and national media to meet with over 400 people from families and organizations who are involved in the community and family based support of people with disabilities.

Oh yeah, and there is a cool technology pavillion on Saturday from 8:30am to 5pm sponsored by ATECH Assistive Technology.

-Best regards,

Gary Dietz at 6by7 Reports

Armadillo Marketing

"Armadillo Marketing" is when bloggers, podcasters (and yes, even ad agencies) create things that are really only of value to the creator.  Even if all of the infrastructure, messaging brilliance, and creative juice is totally in-place you can still have an armadillo.  Armadillo marketing is all vanity - it is inward facing and has a hard shell on the outside to prevent anyone else from getting in. And when you are all rolled up in a ball you are likely to get run over or kicked out of the way (the small guy can kick you out of the way like a soccer ball and the big guy can squish you with her SUV).

Armadillo marketing isn't wrong when its creator is aware that he or she is doing it (and doing it for practice as they hone their craft).  Or, if the client has a lot of money to blow to create "brand awareness" without direct calls to action (most obvious example:  Ad agencies outdoing each other with their superbowl ads).

If you are a client of an agency or a consultant that is foisting armadillos at you all the time you should kick them out of the way or squish them.

-Best regards,

Gary Dietz at 6by7 Reports

Snacks for the brain

Hi,

Here's a blog and an occasional podcast from our "sciency" friends at Vanderbilt University:  Snacks 4 the brain

Best regards,

Gary at 6by7 Reports

The 2005 World Congress on Disabilities

Hi,

First the links!  I created a one hour presentation of the vendors in this conference in two formats:

First format: Podcast:  6by7 Reports Podcasts

There is a great 13 minute podcast interview with author Nancy Henderson Wurst whose new book Able! How One Company's Disabled Workforce Became the Key to Extraordinary Success tells a great story of how disabilities and highly profitable and competitive capitalism can co-exist.  This is up today. 

I will soon post a 60 minute audio only version of the vendor interviews presentation.  The podcast of the vendor interview will be up soon (its produced I just have to add to the XML feed).

The next format:  An audio and image presentation I created with Camtasia with photos and vendor links.  See my Vendor Interview presentation.

Other cool stuff is coming.  Like wheelchair ballroom dancing!

Why did I do this? I have a personal interest in learning more about and reporting on adaptive technologies.  I happened to miss a great conference recently on that very topic. 

I have a client who is doing business with a disability community vendor to bring online education to a wide range of clients.  And they were going to be at the World Congress and Exposition on Disabilities in Philadelphia on Dec 1-3 so I decided to go.  And wield my handy-dandy Olympus digital audio recorder.  I only wish I would have brought a better camera and video camera!

I not only got to see some great adaptive technology, I had the privilege of meeting some very cool people.  One of the coolest was the Paralympic swimmer Kelly Crowley.  (You can jump directly to the interview here.) And I already mentioned Nancy Henderson Wurst.  You can learn more about her new book from her web site.

There are some companies that make great products, make a reasonable profit, and benefit the community.  That's what interested me so much in Nancy Henderson Wurst's book as well as the Onewrite company.  Onewrite makes the Cyrano Communicator.  I can't wait to talk to that company even more in the future.  Plus, they have a 30 day eval for their HP PPC device and all you need is a letter from a speech therapist!

This was a very cool and mind blowing conference.  I hope you enjoy and learn from the media I created.  And, a shout out to my friends at the Area Agency of Greater Nashua, New Hampshire (for paying for my airfare and hotel) and to Exceptional Parent who got me a full conference pass! 

Best,

Gary Dietz at 6by7 Reports

Picking your nose on camera

In the January 28, 2005 Wall Street Journal author Jared Sandberg talked about some “technology assisted” embarrassments in remote meetings. For the most part he talks about conference calls. But what other challenges and opportunities do you get when communication is extended to other real-time technologies?
 
I have had the “pleasure” of seeing next-generation communications technology cause completely brand-new embarrassments. Jared, you think just hearing a toilet flush can interrupt a conference call? That is merely the beginning my friend!

Let’s look at the unintentional “fun” that video can add to online interactions. Not usually in a boardroom setting with a large room-based interactive video system, but more likely when using desktop interactive video and tools. (The social gaffes that can happen in video equipped boardrooms are usually mitigated by the fact that there are multiple people in each room and customary social cues are mostly available. Plus, you don’t as easily forget you are on camera in the formality of a boardroom setting. Not so on the videoconferencing equipped desktop computer used in your office or cubicle.)

The “intimacy” of one’s office or cubicle, just like that of an automobile, gives people false comfort to do things that they wouldn’t dare do in a boardroom. Let’s just say that I have seen more than one senior level executive blatantly “digitally probing his proboscis” in desktop-based online meetings.

After the real-time technology melts away, you can “forget” where you are. And this is a wonderfully double-edged sword. The nose-picking example is one bad edge of that sword. But on the positive edge, once the technology “melts away” the quick, interactive, and challenging aspects of an in-person class or meeting easily transfer online. In fact, there can actually be advantages.

For example, on the cultural front, I have personally found that when I am training non-native English speakers online the kinds of questions and challenges that appear in text chat along with the video and presentation are far deeper and more frequent than when I do the exact same training in person. To me, it is obvious that the comfort of distance and typed English make the remote trainees more open to discussion.

There are also technology set-up issues that can cause interruption. Sometimes people just don’t know how to prop up their PC’s webcam in a way that it aims at the right thing. Imagine that your camera is on your desk and your head is two feet higher than desk level. Once again, a kind of nose-cam can jump in (really I am not obsessed with noses). 

Less offensive, but equally annoying is the lampcam – when the camera aims right into a light or a window so that we see not the participant, but a bright halo of light (better than the nose-cam, but still not business and classroom appropriate). And, when people are working at home, we often get the kid-cam, the cat-cam, the UPS-man-cam, or the “I am eating in front of the camera-cam.” Some can be cute and enhance the meeting, some can get you nauseous.

Now that I touched on a few gross things, let’s look at how this new desktop based collaboration software changes the dynamics of meetings and classes in ways most people wouldn’t think of until they actually participate. 

In a “real classroom” you can’t, for the most part, instant message other students in the room to give them a running commentary  to agree or disagree with the teacher (or chat about football) without other people in the room knowing. With Internet conferencing you can. Again, a double-edged sword. On the upside a co-teacher or student can coach the presenter online in real-time when they are confusing or a student needs support from another to clarify a point. On the downside the students can chat about sports instead of focusing on math. 

In a “real meeting” you can’t cover up the video and data windows with your e-mail, your other work, or even a video game and just “listen in the background”. With online “rich media conferencing” you can. This is great for boring unimportant meetings that don’t demand 100% of your attention. But this is bad if you are the presenter of some important and compelling stuff but you your students don’t have the focus and self-control to pay attention. 

In a “real meeting” people can’t accidentally or purposefully log-in with a “handle” or “screen name” that makes it hard to quickly identify participants. All kinds of short-term havoc can be caused by this one. 

One online class inefficiency is not apparent until you actually host a data only conference where one presenter sends out slides or spreadsheets and everyone else can just watch. As a presenter, you rarely know who is really paying attention because you can neither hear nor see the remote participants. And, if the audio portion is on a conference call, it is hard to determine who is speaking without interruption or setting up a proper ettiquette. Worse, as insinuated by Jared’s example, the presenter will choose to mute EVERYONE to keep order (and keep out hold music) – but this makes it harder to have an impromptu back-and-forth interaction. 

Feedback mechanisms like text chat can actually distract you from your presentation. Mostly though, the dynamic of sitting at your desk and talking into a microphone while presenting (yet not hearing anyone else) can be disconcerting at least and debilitating at worst until you become practiced at it.

One of the largest reasons for multipoint video within these tools is not so much to see the instructor as a talking head, but for the instructor to see the students and the students to see each other – for class management and to introduce standard social cues into an online class.

For example, when I teach on online class that uses multipoint desktop video, I often “make the rounds” of each participant once in a while, perhaps with a question. Sometime, I find the camera focusing on an “empty seat” – and then I question whether I should give that participant the boot – or at least ask them where they are!

So, when you finally make the jump into real-time conferencing for teaching and staff meetings, keep some of these things in mind. And blow your nose before the conference starts!

Best,

Gary at 6by7 Reports