Quality Control for E learning–How I wish…

#Qualitycontrol in #Elearning? This was the title to an article I read a couple of days ago. Although written earlier this year, I noticed this recently. What attracted me was obviously the title, no not because I was interested in the subject but mostly because of the feeling “it didn’t come from us”. 

Just over three year ago in mid 2008, while working with my earlier organization, a similar thought had germinated. We had elaborate discussions on the subject of developing a standard that could evaluate and certify elearning content. Unlike the #epprobate we had initially thought for a standard for content with in India. The thought came about after we were participating in an event called #EINDIA. An #ICT event that brings together many companies with interests in digital learning.

We saw many content developers showcasing their courses, being in an industry where we were also part of developing content – albeit repurposing the content to e learning than developing off the shelf materials. We realized there was tremendous scope if we could develop a standard for #elearning content. Something that would be acceptable, determining the quality of elearning courses developed by various content developers. We had the resources, the knowledge and the experience with us or around us credible enough to come up with something like this. Unfortunately, circumstances never allowed this to actually take off. We had many other issues which needed our focus and this idea like many died prematurely.

When I look back, I feel, may be we should have given it a shot. Although, I would not claim this could have made it big or would have been accepted by all the #elearning content development companies, but we could have been the initiators. A credibility which we could have leveraged.

Read the complete article from zdnet below.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/quality-control-for-e-learning/14565?tag=mantle_skin;content

RIP Steve Jobs – iBow!

iWas never a fan of Apple, always felt it was not my kind of product because there was some restriction or the other with every product they launched. ihated iTunes and pretty much still do… but Steve Jobs, you got to love and admire this man. Many have written enough about him, therefore ihave nothing left to say but…. My heartfelt condolences to the family and everyone for the loss, deep down iDo feel quite sad and may be… just may be… "iMight" just buy an apple product…  soon not sure…but soon

Rest In Peace "Steven Paul Jobs"

‘iBow to you’

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Self-fund your pet projects

After a long hiatus I am back to blogging. I know no one missed me in the blog world :-).

Many of us have had situations during our careers – regardless of the number of years in to one’s career – when we had an idea for the business we work for and couldn’t really work on it due to lack of time and more precisely due to lack of  funds. Many organizations does not have the kind of money required to experiment on out-of-the-box ideas. Companies like Google allows 20% of their work week to be spent on personal projects or special projects (, 2011). However the same cannot be said about companies which are trying to grow or in the middle of growth. There is hardly any leeway for pet projects to be discussed let alone executed in their busy and usually trying environments. To be fair on these organizations, it is not something they do not want to attempt. The time for such projects is just not included in to their cost structure and it is not seen feasible by them either to do so. Although there are obvious advantages and enough proofs for such projects being successful, there are misses too. GOOGLE WAVE started off on the similar lines or so I hear but got shelved with in a year of its existence. Incidentally it was launched on this very day on the 30th of September two years back (Parr, 2009). Nevertheless, there are enough success stories that could inspire one to try the "20 percent time program" if it wasn’t for the lack of time, and funds.

If one could spare some time, could one fund their own special projects? What if one could reserve a small part of one’s income to fund these projects at their workplace itself? Few may ask why do that, if one can fund their projects why work for some one else? Right! Point well taken, but try this angle too.

Let us say a part of the project funding will be done by you and the rest will be done by the company thereby reducing the company’s burden. You as an individual would take the responsibility of the delivery with a stipulated deadline.  I have not heard this being tried, I am sure there will be complexities and problems later in the future once the project is successful, there could arise legal tangles for instance. If some one is actually reading this; I will cover this bit more clearly in the next post:-).

References:

Strickland, J. (2011) How the Googleplex Works [Internet]. Available: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/googleplex.htm [Accessed 30 September 2011]

Parr, B. (2009) Google Wave: A Complete Guide [Internet]. Available:  http://mashable.com/2009/05/28/google-wave-guide/ [Accessed 30 September 2011]

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WAKA WAKA …FIFA WORLDCUP 2010 Schedule – IST

Fifa Foot Ball World Cup Schedule Indian timings (IST) #FIFA #worldcup#Southafrica

Match Date – Time
1 11/06 19:30 SA v Mexico

2 12/06 00:00 Uruguay v France

17 17/06 00:00 SA v Uruguay

18 18/06 00:00 France v Mexico

33 22/06 19:30 Mexico v Uruguay

34 22/06 19:30 France v SA

Match Date – Time
3 12/06 19:30 Argentina v Nigeria

4 12/06 17:00 Korea v Greece

19 17/06 19:30 Greece v Nigeria

20 17/06 17:00 Argentina v Korea

35 23/06 00:00 Nigeria v Korea

36 23/06 00:00 Greece v Argentina

Match Date – Time
5 13/06 00:00 England v USA

6 13/06 17:00 Algeria v Slovenia

22 18/06 19:30 Slovenia v USA

23 19/06 00:00 England v Algeria

37 23/06 19:30 Slovenia v England

38 23/06 19:30 USA v Algeria

Match Date – Time
7 14/06 00:00 Germany v Australia

8 13/06 19:30 Serbia v Ghana

21 18/06 17:00 Germany v Serbia

24 19/06 19:30 Ghana v Australia

39 24/06 00:00 Ghana v Germany

40 24/06 00:00 Australia v Serbia

Match Date – Time
9 14/06 17:00 Holland v Denmark

10 14/06 19:30 Japan v Cameroon

25 19/06 17:00 Holland v Japan

26 20/06 00:00 Cameroon v Denmark

43 25/06 00:00 Denmark v Japan

44 25/06 00:00 Cameroon v Holland

Match Date – Time
11 15/06 00:00 Italy v Paraguay

12 15/06 17:00 NZ v Slovakia

27 20/06 17:00 Slovakia v Paraguay

28 20/06 19:30 Italy v NZ
41 24/06 19:30 Slovakia v Italy

42 24/06 19:30 Paraguay v NZ

Match Date – Time
13 15/06 19:30 Côte d’Ivoire v Portugal

14 16/06 00:00 Brazil v Korea DPR

29 21/06 00:00 Brazil v Côte d’Ivoire

30 21/06 17:00 Portugal v Korea DPR

45 25/06 19:30 Portugal v Brazil

46 25/06 19:30 Korea DPR v Côte d’Ivoire

Match Date – Time
15 16/06 17:00 Honduras v Chile

16 16/06 19:30 Spain v Switzerland

31 21/06 19:30 Chile v Switzerland

32 22/06 00:00 Spain v Honduras

47 26/06 00:00 Chile v Spain

48 26/06 00:00 Switzerland v Honduras

Delaying the ‘hyped’

It is often seen lately in most of the industries before the launch of a new product, there is huge hype created around it. Be it direct or indirect. The marketing brains behind a concept going to extreme lengths in some cases to create this hype. Some of these are intentional, and some unintentional occurrences which the marketing teams use to their advantage. Today the hype is usually created with a controversy.
In case of entertainment industry; say Bollywood the hype is generated usually with link-ups between the leading pair. A spat between the writer and the producer, original writer and the producer(s), rift between two female co-stars the means are many. In some near naked models are used to generate the hype. Some create the hype by creating a false or induced demand for their product. There are various ways of ‘Publicity’ and publicity of any kind is welcome, negative or positive does not really seems to matter.

However, what happens if this much hyped product is delayed? In general people tend to loose interest in such products if there is a delay on the supposed to be release date. The margin in my opinion is very thin, the time taken to launch a product and the forced anticipation. If the launch and the marketing campaign is not timed, then the product will definitely loose its sheen. There will be buyers, but had it been timed well the case would be very different. A very noticeable trend the potential buyers loose interest.

One of the finest examples should be TATA NANO. Look at NANO, there was a huge hue and cry about the “people’s” car. An example of delaying the hyped; Though I do not believe the hype was entirely generated by the company, but it just caught on. Nevertheless the point is NANO in every sense was darling of the media for a while, the hype surrounding it was phenomenal. There were people lauding its inexpensiveness while some others were wary about its build quality and safety standards. Whatever be the case NANO did look like a certain winner. However the launch date was pushed to few months away. People were thronging in for booking the car at almost all the Tata motors‘ showrooms. There were forms being distributed from Banks who offered loans. It seemed like a big deal, people who haven’t bought a vehicle of any kind in their life to people who owned luxury cars were lining up for the first lot. However the delay in the launch has only affected NANO adversely.

There can be countless such examples.An interesting example from the movie industry which we Indians will identify with would be release of Hrithik Roshan starrer Kites. The much hyped movie tanked at boxoffice, much to the chagrin of the cast and crew of the film. The movie was hyped to a large extend, there were reviews, rumours, stories of co stars romantically linked and what not. The movie apparantly was supposed to be released late 2009 but got delayed due to reasons I am not sure of. Yes, it was hyped, delayed and failed.(Though the failure of the movie cannot be due to only the delay). However, I strongly believe if it would have been released on time, the story would have been tad different for sure.

Bottom line: If you are hyping something up, do not delay it too much.

PS: Incidentally I started writing this blog some time back, since Kites was going along nicely according to my theory of hype, I wanted to wait until this movie was released. See if this theory of mine actually worked. It looks like there is some logic to it.

Next up: Is demand for a particular product advantage for its competitor?

in the name of development

Well, for the past few weeks we have had a lot of noise and dust close to our office. Actually in front of the office. A lot of ‘development’ happening on K R Road on Basavanagudi, an underpass is being constructed here. No body knows why an underpass is needed here except the people behind it. The residence associations were against it as there was no need to waste money on something that was never a necessity. No body to listen and the road which had some beautiful trees today looks like a crater. A very sad scene indeed and to witness this everyday is hard to say the least. How do we stop this kind of ‘development’. What is the need of such developments if it destroys the locale on the whole. Sad but true…

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Waiting for its death!

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ty

Model Citizen!

A model citizen usually keeps ‘his’ surroundings clean, among other things that he does. I was driving to office the other day and found one such citizen. He looked like he was going to great lengths in keeping his surroundings clean. These people do not get their due diligence and hardly get any coverage. So here I am giving the guy whetever is possible from my side. However, let me warn you anyone who may want to emulate him may do so at his own peril.

Well, this model citizen was up on a wall over eight feet high when I found him. What was he doing up there? Well, he was keeping his surroundings clean, he was urinating standing on the wall. Yes, you read it right the guy actually scaled up the wall to take a leak :).

What is going on? This is appalling

I was very happy to see the paintings of historic places, temples, people and tourist spots painted on public walls across #Bangalore. The paintings are quite well done I must say. This was done as part of BBMP‘s (BRUHAT BENGALURU MAHANAGARA PALIKE – Bangalore corporation) beautification drive and included 100s of local artists. The idea also was to keep miscreants away from defacing the walls (not sure if this would help).

However, I noticed last week near #Lalbagh gate they were removing these paintings by applying a new coat of cement. The beautiful works have been removed without any trace just after weeks of getting them done. Just when I thought #BBMP has done something wonderful, they are at it again and the paintings are gone. Unless of course they plan to paint new ones every three or four months. If it is so, then it is an expensive affair. Yes, the poor street artists might be benefited but the work of art will be lost every time. But I have my doubts, if that is really the case, I do not really think #BBMP is so genial. 🙂

Having said that I always have just one problem with the paintings; the messages are written only in Kannada. Even though I can read it, there are many who can’t. Bangalore being a metropolitan city should provide these messages in English. After all messages are supposed to be read and if they are not in languages understood by a majority then it does not make sense. They could also add details about the tourist spots in English providing insights about Karnataka’s culture and rich natural resources and heritages. Right now only the names appear in Kannada and nothing notable about them. Wish messages and names are in English too.

My humble appeal to the #BBMP, please do not remove these paintings! They are beautiful and provide such a relief to our eyes which are tired of seeing the ugly posters pasted on these walls.

Picture: Seen here is one of the paintings across Bangalore
Source
ban paitings

Paintings being removed:

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