John Schultz

I have recently been involved in several discussions regarding the use of technology in the classroom. This conversation first started with a discussion of Google Wave, a product that is still in its very early stages of development but has great potential, then moved to the iPad, and eventually found its way to all technology. We discussed everything including the obvious technology such as student laptops and response clickers to web applications and LiveScribe Pulse pens. So the question is what is useful and what is just to much.

Lets start with the old school, obviously pen and paper are a good start; this bit of technology is a bit better than the old stone tablets but how have we improved on this in the last century. The Pulse pen by LiveScribe is a good start. It brings the freedom of pen and paper, not restricting users to the confines of a program’s interface. The Pulse pen is a high tech recording device that captures the pen strokes and audio from the room as the user writes in a dot matrix printed notebook. The user can then download the notes they wrote and playback their handwriting with the audio recording on their computer; furthermore they can share these recordings with anyone across an easy to use website. Useful? I think so the person taking notes is still engaged in the conversation and there isn’t a lot to distract them, it’s just pen and paper right.

So then we take the next leap forward to tablet computers, laptops, notebooks, netbooks, and the newest craze a tablet hybrid such as the iPad or HP Slate. These impressive devices are great and can do just about anything we can imagine but do they really improve productivity in a meeting or classroom setting? The note taking software on these devices is often limited in its ability to take accurate notes and often lacks the accuracy and freedom of pen on paper. Most users who are taking notes can write significantly faster than they can type and unless they are intimately familiar with the software they are using to take notes they will often spend time fidgeting with the formatting to get the notes to appear the way they want them. So why are so many students and professionals taking this approach? First and foremost these devices often offer a multitude of resources which if used properly can improve an individuals ability to intelligently participate in a conversation. Say for example a conversation in a board meeting shifted to last years projected financials; you may not have that information on hand in printed form but with a networked computer and a bit of know how most users can access it in seconds. The only problem with this defense is that most users abuse their ability to access the outside world; they use the web for social media and games that disconnect them from the conversation rather than relevant information that involves them in the conversation. Some users believe they have an incredible ability to multitask allowing them to get more done than just attending a meeting; unfortunately as shown in this study (Multitasking Article) by Stanford shows that most of these people are wrong. Another argument is that electronic copies of their notes reduces the amount of materials they have to carry around and improves the ability to organize data. In my opinion this is the only reason any of these devices may be useful in a meeting situation.

Lastly there’s the fun concept of forced participation. By handing out response clickers and requiring online surveys regarding the information relayed during a meeting, instructors and presenters are in essence requiring people to listen to what they are saying out of fear. Most people put in this situation don’t listen for anything other than key information and even fewer people retain the knowledge after they have overcome the challenge of responding correctly to a question or survey. So are these items useful, only under one situation, users must be involved in the conversation. The bottom line is lecture style presentations don’t work anymore, if technology has done one thing to our society it has encouraged people to be connected. Someone sitting in a lecture who never says a word may never feel connected to that information and may never actually absorb it.

In the end the lower the amount of technology and the higher the amount of direct interaction the better off we are when it comes to learning; but then again these are just my random thoughts.

The art of web design is a process that changes from company to company and person to person but no matter how the final product is produced there are always three factors that come into play: cost, time and quality. As a project manager of a major design firm or an individual creating a web presence you must carefully weigh these three elements; in the end you only get to pick two of them, the third is going to suffer. If you, for instance, want a high quality website developed at a low cost it is going to take longer, and if you want a low cost website produced quickly it is going to be a lower quality. As web development becomes a larger market developers are finding ways to mitigate these factors. One of the most popular ways to accomplish this goal within the development community has been web application framework development.

Application packages such as Drupal and Code Igniter and even WordPress have become powerful tools that allow for rapid application development by providing a base framework to use as the foundation of the website. Each of these environments offer large amounts of tested and community moderated code that performs many of the basic tasks required by dynamically generated sites. While the actual benefits offered by an open source framework or content management system vary from product to product the majority of them offer some sort of database interface, session management, and html helper templates. Other web application frameworks such as MooTools are designed to aid in manipulation of CSS, DOM elements, native JavaScript objects, and Ajax requests. All web development frameworks despite the area of development they were designed for are designed to increase speed and reduce cost of overall site development.

The quality of an open source system often lies in the community of developers working to support it. Developer communities generate countless plug-ins and mods to popular open source systems often for the fun or the credit that goes along with putting their signature within the code. These plug-ins can range from one click installs to lengthy source code modifications but chances are if you’re looking to for your website to do something there is a plug-in for it out there somewhere. Many sites such as the WordPress Plugin Directory act as user hubs that make searching for quality plug-ins easy.

While plug-ins are an important part of finding an open source platform they are not the only thing to be considered. There are many platforms out there and choosing the right one can be an arduous task. While some platforms such as phpBB3, an open source forum application and MediaWiki, the wiki software that drives Wikipedia are specific to the task they are going to perform. Others such as CakePHP and Django are generic and can be used to develop almost anything. Two things to be conscious of when selecting a framework are your comfort level with the framework and the footprint that the open source project brings with it. Having an application framework that can perform the functions you need and that you are comfortable working with must be carefully balanced with the impact that framework will have on your servers based on the volume and type of traffic. Almost all applications are going to require custom tailoring and if you don’t understand what you’re working with this can quickly become an impossible task to perform. Think of the application framework as a roll of fabric, by having it you’re saved the time of having to weave the fabric yourself but, if you don’t know how to use a needle and thread you’re going to have a hard time making a suit. The footprint of the application becomes important because a framework that comes with a large number of built in features, while requiring less coding on your part, will have more code that needs to be processed and stored on your server. The leaner a framework is the more code you have to write to customize it but a bloated framework can be potentially harmful. Finding the balance between performance and power often comes back to those three elements I started with: cost, time, and quality. The more bloated your development framework is the less code you are going to have to write saving you time and money, and yet you risk the possibility of a lower quality.

A good application framework can be a powerful tool if properly used and yet there are times when a custom solution is the route to go. Sites that require very specific functionality and high performance are going to require custom development. Unfortunately customization is directly related to risk; without proper documentation and a solid knowledge of the programming a custom site can become very expensive to maintain and troubleshoot. To avoid this problem when creating a custom solution all code should be commented, standards should be followed, and if at all possible follow a model that is widely used and documented.

When starting any project it comes down to you reflecting on your comfort level, how much time you have, what your budget is, and the quality of site that you want to produce. The conclusions you draw from this reflection will determine how you approach the development.

According to a press release by Facebook.com (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics), their site has over 250 million users and more than half of those users visit the site at least once every 24 hours. Similar sites such as Myspace.com and Linkedin.com are experiencing similar numbers of users. These sites offer businesses the unique opportunity to reach a very targeted group of users beyond the conventional methods of advertising.

Traditionally online advertising offers retailers the ability to push their message to users as they browse the web for anything and everything. Unlike traditional print advertising, web advertisements allowed more targeted content, giving the viewer an ad that is specific to them, or at lease specific to information collected about them as they crawl the web. While this offers a unique advantage online advertising still has the same weakness as print advertising in that it isn’t the content that the view is looking for, it’s simply in addition to the content the reader is looking for. The advertisements load around the content and can usually be ignored by the users. Because of this most search engines are designed to ignore advertising and many users have software designed to remove advertising before they ever see it. So the question becomes how do you get the user to want to see your ad, how do you get them to look for your content? The answer is simple, and social networking sites are making it easier than ever.

Facebook.com says it best in their product guide where they discuss Facebook Pages (http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages); any business can “create a presence that looks and behaves like user profiles to connect and engage with your customers and amplify your voice to their friends.” The best part about it is this product is it’s free. Sites such as Linkedin.com and Myspace.com allow companies to create informational profiles that allow similar interaction with users. Myspace.com currently limits their profiles to individual users and artistic groups such as filmmakers and bands. Linkedin.com offers company profiles to any company however they do not allow that company to act as an individuals and it creates more of a meeting and informational point for users. Facebook.com thus far allows the most functionality, allowing companies to post photos, multimedia, and post information in the form of ‘wall’ posts as well as allowing the company to post information about itself such as a brief description and subsidiaries. These social networking sites allow businesses to get their name out to large groups of users, and provide constant updates of services and offers being provided to those users.

Blogging sites such as Blogger.com (a Google subsidiary), and WordPress.org provide companies to give their employees direct interaction with the public and one another. Companies like Cisco (http://blogs.cisco.com/) and Zappos (http://blogs.zappos.com) are on the forefront of this new and somewhat revolutionary idea. The concept, like corporate social networking, is simple, draw the public in, become their friend, by conversing with them at their level, and they will be more likely to do business with you in the future. As of right now the Cisco Blogs are still very centered around the company with all levels of users, from Interns to Vice Presidents blogging about projects that they are currently working on in the company. This has led to tech enthusiasts to flock to their site to see the newest and most cutting edge ideas before they hit the market. Zappos.com takes a different approach by allowing their employees, again on every level of the corperate ladder, to blog about anything and everything, such as this blog (http://tinyurl.com/nbjgny) that talks about playing Low Limit Hold’em with Lee Jones.

While blogging is yet again another great way to draw in users, it is often time consuming and if not done correctly can lead to a public relations nightmare. This is where the newest and most popular idea of micro-blogging hits the ground running. One of the most popular micro-blogging sites on the web, Twitter.com, has recently seen issues in keeping up with its exponential growth. An interesting post on the Twitter Development Group (http://tinyurl.com/knzdul) talks about the great Social Media DDOS attack of 2009, also discussed in the CNet article Twitter Crippled by Denial of Service Attack, and states it best when the author says Twitter is in panic mode “scaling to meet demand became more of a priority than scaling to manage their demand.” Nonetheless, Twitter.com offers a unique opportunity for businesses to reach their users. Many companies such as Discovery Communications, LLC (owner and operator of the Discovery Channel) are already using Twitter to track users that are interested in their products, essentially free mass market research. Companies such as Best Buy are allowing their employees to post to a single twitter account in an attempt to help answer customers questions via the micro-blogging giant. The Best Buy ‘Twelp Force’ (tweeting help force) has thus far been hit or miss as discussed by this blog (http://tinyurl.com/lg5m8t) however smaller companies and organizations have been using Twitter with great success, interacting with their customers on a personal level.

Each of these different types of social media offers a unique way to interact with users but the fundamental concept is the same, providing content the visitor will want to see while creating a unique and personal conversation with the masses. The key to remember is that social media can’t be forced; businesses need to provide content that will drive their target audience to their social media outlet, such as exclusive deals or insider insight. With a pool of potential customers that’s itching to find these online businesses only a few clicks away, it’s a wonder that every company isn’t already jumping onto the social media bandwagon.

I want you to take a minute to stop and think about how many times you have participated in some sort of electronic conversation today. How many instant messages, emails, telephone calls and text messages have you been involved in? Think about how much money there is to be made if one company could have its hand in every form of that communication. One company does this so well that many people don’t even notice how much it affects them.

Google (GOOG), one of the largest and still fastest growing companies since it’s creation, has become a complete communication organization. Evolving from a dorm room based search engine, Google is finding new and exciting ways to tie every form of electronic communication that we participate in into one complete package. With applications like Google Talk (http://www.google.com/talk/) we can chat over any instant messaging network and then search our chat history with the power of the Google Search Engine. Other applications like Google Voice (http://www.google.com/voice/) tie all of our phone conversations into one system by directing all of our phone calls through one network. With the launch of Google Wave (http://wave.google.com/), Google will successfully tie every other form of electronic communication together with a complete “communications platform.”

So what can we do as a web developing community to keep up with this epidemic of Googlization? First and foremost, don’t fight it, use it! You may not like that one company is so powerful, you may even dislike it because of that fact, but unfortunately you’re not going to be able to change anything by taking a stand. The public is too ingrained in the culture of the interwebs, and Google is one of the few companies that have identified that it needs to give consumers what they want—not what Google thinks they should have.

Google Webmaster Tools (http://www.google.com/webmasters/) is a powerful set of instruments that lets you monitor your sites ranking within the sometimes-mystical Google Search Engine. I would recommend that at the very least you submit your sitemap to the Google-bot through Webmaster Tools. The next most powerful tool I’ve found by Google allows you to monitor your site and make changes to cause an increase in traffic. This tool is called Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/). This suite of analytical tracking tools allows you to monitor your sites’ performance, set goals, and even create multiple copies of your site with different layouts that can tell you how your visitors like to traverse through your site. The best part of these two site improvement tools is they’re completely free.

As far as functionality goes, the Google Apps (http://www.google.com/a/) suite is one of the most powerful set of web-based applications out there. With the full power of Google Docs, Google Calendar, G-Mail and many other Google applications available to your domain name. Signing up for Google Apps is relatively quick, however the full effect of Google Apps is not necessarily free. If you’re a non-profit organization, have no fear, you get the full scale “Enterprise Edition” of the application suite. Fortunately as a user of both the enterprise edition and the free edition I can tell you there’s not much of a difference and unless your site is part of an enterprise size organization, over 50 email addresses, you’ll have no need for the enterprise edition; not to say that it’s not a good investment. One caution I would have about Google Apps is, make sure you set similar domains up within one account initially, for example five01creations.com and five01creations.net; merging accounts after you’ve created the apps accounts for the different domains can be tricky and result in data loss.

One of the best tools you can give to your users is a custom Google Search Bar on your site (http://www.google.com/coop/cse/). The Google Search Bar can be customized to pull results from specific domains or even specific pages within domains. This tool gives your users the ability to search every Google indexed page on your site without ever leaving your site. Unfortunately the search only works for Google indexed pages on your site, so while the search utility is great it’s not perfect. Augmenting the Google Search Bar with an advanced search option that is custom tailored to your site content is a great way to solve this problem.

These are just a few of the starting tools that I would recommend any web developer look into. With powerful API’s such as the Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/) and Blogger (http://www.blogger.com/) the possibilities to improve the usability of your site are endless. Be sure to check out the Google development site (http://code.google.com/) and the Google products laboratory (http://labs.google.com/) for some of the latest and most exciting developments on the web.