Nov
19
“Pass it on…” Project Launched
Filed Under Uncategorized, Hungarian American Community, Lauer Learning
The challenge of passing on strong ethnic ties to the next generation is one that all cultures deal with in the United States. Many ethnic populations are losing their knowledge of, and interest in, their ancestry — history, culture and language. It is clear that a combination of complex factors – some community related, some environmental - are to blame.
Lauer Learning presents the ”Pass It On” project as a program of preservation as well as a plan for change.
It identifies new ways to reach the youth and help families strengthen ties to their roots by finding ways to connect and re-connect 2nd and 3rd generation Americans to their ethnic backgrounds. We do this with a variety of tools and new approaches that expose, educate and engage ‘at risk’ members of ethnic communities nationwide and help them gradually develop more and more interest in their ancestry.
As part of “Pass It On,” Lauer Learning is developing a number of new educational materials that specifically target the next generation of Hungarian Americans (our first target group). Through the use of multimedia tools and the creation of an online community site, TheGulyasPot.com, we hope to move young Hungarian Americans down a continuum and reverse this trend.
If you are interested in reading more about the “Pass It On” initiative, please download the white paper on this page. Also, post feedback in the “Pass It On” section. This is a work in progress and one that will benefit by people and ethnic communities working together to share ideas and best practices.
Oct
24
Although I’m not usually a CSI:NY viewer, after seeing the previews of an avatar inspired murder, I had to check it out. The show delivered a cool new twist on a murder invertigation and an amazing hour-long commercial for Second Life - showcasing everything from how to create a custom avatar to the creation of secret locations to a killer fight scene to avatars flying from island to island.
Each commercial break also mentioned the follow-up cross promotion between CSI:NY and Second Life which consists of three different options:
1) CSI viewers can walk around virtual New York, visit a CSI lab and play forensic games.
2) “Murder by Zuiker,” a murder which can be solved in SL by finding clues. The 100 people who come closest to solving the murder win virtual gifts.
3) The big tie-in/cross-over turns users into CSI investigators, arming them with a field kit and tools. Then they’re given the opportunity to interview suspects and solve the murder featured in the actual CSI:NY episode. (The episode itself ended in a cliff-hanger that will apparently not be resolved until February.)
It will be interesting to track the success of this partnership in driving new users to Second Life. Some industry watchers are predicting 1 Million new users.
Check out Henry Jenkins blog on this “transmedia experience”…including an interview with the Electric Sheep producers.
Oct
17
This submission was posted by Nguyen Allen of Deloitte and the 2007 EWG Conference Chair.
In the tenth annual “50 Most Powerful Women” issue of Fortune magazine, more female CEOs are listed than ever before. The first list in 1998 featured 3 female CEOs of publicly held companies. This year it is up to 13 in the US, with 16 more on the international list - 11 of them newcomers, many of whom are American expats who went to Europe.
And what’s even more exciting is that the front cover and lead article is dedicated to the theme of female CEOs grooming other women as their successors.The magazine goes on to explore the continuing drought of women on Boards, but highlights several likely future CEOs as well…so the culture may finally be changing.This all begs the question…has the glass ceiling shattered? Does it still exist?
There are obvious examples of past trends changing, but there are still examples of some trends that have remained the same. Is it just a matter of time (one funnel leading to another) and grooming?
“I haven’t perceived a true glass ceiling for several years,” says Carrie Cox (No. 32) of Schering-Plough (Charts, Fortune 500). “There are a whole lot of women ready to reach the top now.”
Oct
16
Snapshot: Blogs
Filed Under Uncategorized, Leveraging Technology, EWG
Well…I know people have been visiting the blog becuse I can track the visits, but I’m still puzzled why few people have registered and even fewer commented.
Several months ago, the Wall Street Journal had an article about evite invitations that claimed many people did not RSVP to their evites because of the pressure they felt to craft a pithy response with so many people reading it. Perhaps we are experiencing the same phenomenon with this blog…
Is this a generational thing? Is it a gender thing? Or is it just a time thing?
To keep in the theme of our other EWG snapshots…
Blog is short for a weblog which generally allows information to be posted by a limited number of authors (so there is an element of control) and listed chronologically or by category. It is interactive and allows any user who registers to make comments (HINT! HINT!), which is an important aspect of this tool.
STATS: To date, there are well over 100 million blogs on pretty much any topic you can think up…yup, that one too. Heck, they say there are more than 56 million on MySpace alone. Technorati is the major name in blog search engines and tracking blog popularity. As of September 2007, they were tracking 106 million blogs.
Basic differences between the three main types of community sites
Blog - limited # of authors, registered users can comment though comments are often only seen through a link (like on this site)
Bulletin Board - anyone can post or comment, comments are seen at the same time as the original posting (think physical bulletin board)
Wiki - user-generated content that can be edited by other users (example: wikipedia)
Oct
15
Snapshot: RSS
Filed Under Uncategorized, Leveraging Technology, EWG
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication and is a way for us to keep up with rapidly changing content on the web, especially on news sites, blogs, podcasts and the like. An RSS document, called a feed, usually contains a summary of content and a link to further information.
RSS is beneficial because it means 1) you don’t have to visit every site regularly and gather information manually and 2) you don’t need to join every mailing list to gain access to the information.
Sites that utilize an RSS feed have an icon that appears in the address line (like this blog). Click on it and you will see the content transformed into easy to read and manage clips.
Oct
13
Snapshot: Second Life
Filed Under Uncategorized, Leveraging Technology, EWG
This submission was posted by Deepa Nair of IBM as part of the “Snaphot Series” for the EWG conference.
The reaction I get when I first ask people if they’ve heard of Second Life is quite interesting – a one-eyebrow raised look which captures both incredulousness and intrigue. Second Life is one of many different platforms being developed for virtual worlds. What is a virtual world? It is an immersive 3D digital environment with characteristics which symbolize a world: people (or their avatars), places (known as islands), and things.
OK, so why should anyone in the business world take a moment to understand Second Life and virtual worlds? They should because these virtual worlds are thought of to represent the next-generation or 3D Internet. But first an explanation of virtual worlds — perhaps an analogy would help. Imagine that instead of watching a movie you were part of it. The view within the movie changing based on your movements (not the camera angles decided by a director) and the results of the actions based on your choices and the choices of the other avatars around you. Currently, using just the keyboard and mouse as your navigation tools, you can move (walk, run, and yes, even fly) around the virtual world of Second Life.
Joining Second Life is free (I know, I know, there’s a catch right?). Actually, if all you want to do today is just “walk around” in Second Life, that is free. Go to the website, download the software and create your “in-world” character, your avatar. The Second Life world allows you quite a bit of flexibility in designing your avatar, giving you the options to modify your image by tweaking everything from the location of your eyes, to the pattern of your clothes.
But why do this? Why create an avatar, why have an account? There are several early business applications to virtual worlds:
Education – Many internet savvy people are familiar with the concept of online education. Second Life just takes this one step further. Imagine being in an environment where you and the other avatars are all, at the same time, in a “virtual” classroom. Imagine, better yet, that the virtual training environment is the equivalent of hands-on training. One of the biggest business benefits is avoiding the cost of travel to get everyone (perhaps from different geographic areas), to the same “classroom.”
Events – From conferences to concerts, sporting events to parties there are many different types of events that can be recreated in a Second Life environment.
Commerce – Some consumer retail stores like Circuit City and Sears have setup “stores” in Second Life, mimicking the experience of shopping at their stores. This is in many ways similar to shopping on the Web, just in a 3D environment.
Research – Companies and government agencies are using virtual worlds for conducting complex 3D modeling.
This new type of environment will change the way in which business – for example marketing – takes place. For someone who is not a technology early adopted, much of this may sound like a game. But, businesses that remain oblivious to all of this will be played.
Check out the following links to articles about IBM and their presence in Second Life.
IBM on Second Life: More than PR
IBM: Second Life, IBM push ‘open’ avatars for virtual worlds
Big Blue expands its Second Life
Oct
4
Snapshot: Avatars
Filed Under Uncategorized, Leveraging Technology, EWG
Avatars are a graphic representation or icon of someone in a virtual shared reality. Translation: a cyber-form that you control and sometimes create in an online community. It is actually quite fun to create an avatar for yourself and is an interesting way for teens (and some adults as well) to experiment a bit with their identity or push the envelope in terms of what may be conidered normal.
Some examples:
Some of the top sites where you would use an avatar include:
Second Life is a virtual world where its users, called “Residents”, can interact with each other through their avatars. They can also explore, socialize, participate in individual and/or group activities, create and trade items (known as virtual property) and services from each another. There is also a cool feature which allows avatars to fly overhead to survey the world.
Activeworlds is a community of hundreds of thousands of users that chat and actually build 3D virtual reality environments from a selection of objects. AW allows users to own worlds and universes, and develop 3D content. There is another interesting competitor in this realm.
World of Warcraft
In July of this year, WOW logged in 9 Million users worldwide, of them 3.5 M in Asia, 2 M in North America and 2 M in Europe, making it one of the most popular MMORPGs (massively multi-player online role-playing games).
Implications
Imagine the business or educational implications of such a techology…we already have talking avatars providing the feel of a live conversation at call centers and animated avatars (like the Microsoft paperclip) helping the less-tech savvy through software programs. Imagine teacher avatars working with student avatars who live in remote locations. The teacher avatars are able to personalize their lesson plans to match the learning style of each student.
Perhaps in the not too distant future…customer avatars will visit the virutal world of a company (no longer just a website) and be welcomed with a handshake by an avatar they choose among many possibilities. There they can access all information from the omniscient customer database and provide completely customized solutions and products based on the customer’s needs and the company’s talents. Before the customer makes the final purchase the avatar can help them utilize all of their natural senses through a virtual sensory experience to sample the product or service ahead of time…
Dont wake me, I’m dreaming!
NOTE: The Snapshot series provides a brief look at some of today’s technologies that we can leverage for use both personaly and professionally. Lauer Learning authored this series for the EWG Conference 2007.
Oct
3
With the help of today’s technology, readily accepted tools of collaboration and a fundamental shift in the concept of propietary knowledge, the consumer no longer has a passive role. Welcome, my friends, to the age of participation. You are participating in something right now, or at least you have the option to post your comments to this blog and further a discussion on this topic (Hint, hint!). Here are some other examples:
Wikipedia is a user-created encyclopedia with submissions from thousands of authors.
STATS: Though there are now versions in 92 languages (and counting), the English-language version boasts more than 100 Million entries. This resource is now larger by ten times than any Encyclopedia Britannica you may have on your shelf and it won’t need to be updated in a year’s time.
Wikipedia versus Encyclopedia Britannica
Since we’ve already touched on YouTube in other entries, let’s talk about Current TV, a national cable and satellite network that relies almost completely on submissions from amateurs. To get their contributors up to speed, Current TV offers a free online tutorial and information on their expectations for entries. To provide a little competition and some quality assurance, viewers vote on which stories actually make it on air.
The InnoCentive network is an interesting example of what was once perceived as an insanely proprietary industry wading in the unchartered but fertile territory of mass collaboration. Through this network, some 100,000 scientists around the world help solve R&D challenges for cash rewards.
This is but the tip of the iceberg! Please post other examples so we can continue to explore this brave new world…
NOTE: The Snapshot series provides a brief look at some of today’s technologies that we can leverage for use both personaly and professionally. Lauer Learning authored this series for the EWG Conference 2007.
Oct
2
Snapshot: YouTube, Tivo and Games
Filed Under Uncategorized, Educational Gaming, Leveraging Technology, EWG
Well…I think I may be the next adult claimed by ADD and I blame it entirely on YouTube, Tivo and games.
YouTube presents every video in digestable, bite-size 10-minute-or-less tidbits, and if the video is not interesting enough, there are a million more to choose from on virtually any topic in the world. In fact, in July, YouTube reported they serve 100 million videos a day and upload 65,000.
GOOD NEWS: Many the clips are either hilarilously funny or downright educational (though it most certainly houses it’s share of the bizarre).
Tivo, the advertising industry’s worst nightmare, has made it all but intolerable for us to watch a one-hour show on “regular” TV, lest I suffer through the commercials and succumb to a clickfest that only my husband can rival.
GOOD NEWS: You can actually go out on Thursday night and not have to miss Grey’s and you can pre-program issues of interest, so you can catch a Charlie Rose interiew with PM Nicolas Sarkozy even though you didn’t know it was on.
And games, with their unbelievable graphics, compelling gameplay and storylines (I’m a role-playing game fan myself) and exciting features like multi-player access, make them the perfect mini-escape from daily life…and yes, even a way to socialize and educate. If you don’t believe me about socializing, you clearly have never played Guitar Hero or any game on the Nintendo Wii. And there are many examples of educational games, such as the Roller Coaster Tycoon series, the social activist game Darfur is Dying, Ayiti: The Cost of Life and FF56! 
GOOD NEWS: Statistics show that more and more parents and teachers are playing games with their kids and finding ways to make this new medium educational and useful beyond simple entertainment. And independent developers (like Lauer Learning) continue to push the envelope in the “serious games” realm.
So little time, so much technology to explore…well, maybe my ADD is getting better, at least I finished th
NOTE: The Snapshot series provides a brief look at some of today’s technologies that we can leverage for use both personaly and professionally. Lauer Learning authored this series for the EWG Conference 2007.
Oct
1
From MySpace to Facebook to LinkedIn, tools of social networking have surged in popularity. Yet interestingly enough, I still have a stack of business cards that I keep track of in an old-style Rolodex on my desk. You can call me a dinosaur, but I still like the look and feel of business cards and what they say about a person or company. That doesn’t mean that I don’t use technological tools as well…
MySpace skyrocketed in popularity with the youth set even in spite of the concerns raised about security. As a result, teens now realize that the site is also used by recruiters, college admissions staff and GASP! even parents logging on to see what their kids are up to.
STATS: MySpace recently hit 55 Millon views every day making it the #1 Internet destination.
Facebook is picking up steam as a visual Rolodex (it includes a picture), but while some see security issues looming, I keep making the unflattering comparison to the so-called “meat book” from sorority rush in college.
STATS: Facebook has 8 Million users each month and claims 250 Million page views in any 24-hour period.
LinkedIn is perhaps the most professional of the online networking tools, and does have some protection (you need a connection or introduction to add someone to your network) but I can’t help but wonder about the value of this tool when I receive 15 LinkedIn invitations from people I barely meet at each conference I attend. It seems to me that even though the technology has changed, the strength of a network still depends on the strength of the relationships. Or, is that me being old-fashioned again? Should I strive to be the next LinkedIn person to log 500+ contacts?
STATS: LinkedIn reported 14 Million members in September 2007.
NOTE: For those of you worried about security issues, check out the following article:
http://www.bsu.edu/security/article/0,1384,86675-5031-40336,00.html
NOTE: The Snapshot series provides a brief look at some of today’s technologies that we can leverage for use both personaly and professionally. Lauer Learning authored this series for the EWG Conference 2007.
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