Internship Summary

The internship I chose was with Altus Learning Systems in Los Gatos. The company basically creates corporate training portals for its clients. Sales meeting or training modules are captured from the local sites and put up on a custom created web portal for employees to access and download in a variety of formats. The focus of my internship was to assess the usage of current web 2.0 technologies and research new tools that would better advance our company.

The issue that I found present was that ALS seems to be a web 2.0 company which continues to rely on web 1.0 technology. The collaboration aspect is one that we market for our clients but do not use it in house. I found this to be a big issue especially since our main office is separated from the location in which I am stationed. Communications and collaboration seemed to be a big cause of confusion and inefficiency. At the beginning of the internship I was approached by my supervisor which instated the task of researching possible solutions for this issue.
My goal was to try and tackle some small issues and try to implement some changes in order to start simple collaboration within the company. Once this was accomplished, I would then work on other types of collaboration with new technologies that I would research. The process started off well as from taking ITEC 830, I have learned how to use Google Docs and Google Sites as a good collaboration beginning. I immediately proposed this as a way to keep in house information updated. This seemed to work well with my team of co-workers. Unfortunately for the great part of the company, co-workers were so used to the web 1.0 technology that they were reluctant to change. I do believe that we have proven that the collaboration tools I have introduced have worked. The Wiki that ALS had been using was bought out by Google. Google decided to scrap JotSpot as it was old and not as flexible as Google Docs was. Since JotSpot was going to cease and the data stored was going to be deleted, I was able to quickly move the information over to Google Docs and inform IT to approve this. ALS is currently using Google Sites for its Wiki site and Google Docs for in house information. I then was able to look at other collaboration technologies to help the company. The details of this was reflected on my blog. I believe I spent a good amount of hours working on this. Per week before events started to happen, I was able to spend an hour a day per work week doing research. Once we got into our heavy event schedule, I wasn’t able to do much research but I did run across an issue which used some problem solving to use new collaboration tools such as the EditShare.

The lesson I have learned from this internship is that nothing works perfectly in the real world. The key to being successful and keeping employers or clients happy is to keep flexible. There is always going to be political or liking issues which will lend itself to be difficult. Learning to use the different new technologies and finding ways to accommodate various people or come to a compromise is the best solution. Overall I have had a blast documenting my progress at ALS. It really was like stepping outside the box and taking a look at my current work flow. There is a ton of room for improvement but as I mentioned, it is the compromise and ability to be flexible that will lend a bigger hand. There isn’t much use to fight a losing battle. It will be better to find a way to implement new effective tools in which everyone can benefit collaboratively.

Reality Check - Learning to be Flexible

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. From the events that I have been managing at work, moving, and finishing projects for class, I think I am over due for some rest. One thing that became quite clear as I am sitting here re-reading my previous post is that things in theory don't necessarily apply themselves to reality. All of the planning and maximizing that we learn in our classes are great tools to use in the real world. The problem is that not everyone has the same goals as you might. This makes designing and planning very difficult. The best way to create a solution then is to find the best compromise. As eductional designers, it'll be up to us to be as flexible to our future clients as possible. The tools we have gathers are just that; they are tools. We will continue to learn about new technologies and to better use them but it'll really be the client who will be in charge of deciding if they want to impliment these things in their process.

I have been quite frustrated with my own work. As I noted in a previous blog entry, I feel that we are a Web 2.0 company using Web 1.0 technology. I have constantly been working hard to help improve this but the fact of the matter is, either because of financial issues or political issues we cannot offer or support certain technologies. I always felt that if there is a will then there is a way. But in this case I feel like I am fighting an upward battle. To better this I have turned my thoughts around. I still have a flair for new technologies and will continue to research and use them but for my currentl job, I will use what I have to continue to manage process as best possible.

Teleconferencing Events and a Business Collaboration Site

This week has been busy with our first teleconferencing event. Everything has turn virtual and we are using WebEx as the medium in which things are presented. Unfortunately we are still using WebEx in a way that is was unintended to be used, but we are managing the best we can. The presenters are coming through their web cams and we are then pulling this image for our video stream. The quality has gone way down but it is what the client wants. The interaction is completely web 2.0 as people are collaborting during the presentations. The limitations from programming or bandwith issues have hindered some of the collaboration, but it is interesting to see how this is evolving.

During one of the presentations I overheard some talking about a site called Jive. http://www.jivesoftware.com/

Jive boasts themselves as a social business software. It seems to be a collaboritive forum of some sort. It would be interesting to do more research on this. I will have to spend some time looking in more deatil on their site. There might be something I can learn from this new site that our company might find useful...

Changes, Changes, and more Changes

Since my last entry we had build a whole new process here. We had bought and setup and EditShare which did wonders for our last event. Since the economic downturn, it looks as though things are getting worse. We just got a notice last week that all events for the rest of the year would be handled as a conference call. This worried me as all of the equipment we had just purchased basically is now no longer useful. I would no longer need to schedule contractors and the cost to capture a conference call is drastically smaller than a live event.

We spend the last week talking about how to handle the situation. We are going full force with WebEx and numbers will have to go back to sales for some decision making. I feel like this is where technology fails us... when they possibly take away jobs and cut cost by providing a lower quality product.

We will have to see how things play out. Tomorrow starts the first conference call event. I do see some issues already but let's see how things play out before I make an assumption.

Success and Boy am I Tired

It was a crazy shuffle but the event is finally over. I was worried since we didn't have enough time to test the EditShare fully before we stared the event. It took a lot longer than I thought to get that thing set up. Because of the network issues in the building, it took a ton of back work to get everything set up correctly. Literally the day before the event started the EditShare was ready to go.

I found that the EditShare concept of online collaboration is the same as any other Web 2.0 tool. It's all about file managment; where to put files and how to easily search and access them. Our team was able to come up with a great naming convention and file structure system which help us make our 24 hour turn around quota. We used Google Docs as a tracing document to make sure everyone knew who was working on what and what was completed.

I am so glad the event worked. I wish it was time for a break but now I start planning for the next event. Our team is going to have a meeting about our thoughts on the process. We will need to get this documented and hopefully refine it for the next event.

Edit Share - A Solution

Today I found a company that would be able to help solve my problem. After a long conversation with them I found that there is a A/V file management hardware that allows for collaboration. This server called the EditShare allows multipule video files to be captured to one place. At that point multiple people can access the files in order to start production on them. What a dream come true. It turns out that the EditShare is widely used in the broadcasting field. I quickly got the uppers to talk with them. I believe we are scheduled to get one in as soon as possible... I hope this works. We are a week out from two events and everything needs to be set up and tested.

New Classroons - File Management Hell

With the economic down turn, a lot of our clients have been cutting travel and increasing online training. This is great for us as we provide this service to our clients. This change however has twisted the current production procedure. I was just told that instead of our traditional 7-8 day turn around, I would need to produce all assets within 24 hours. Upon hearing this news I thought I was going to pass out. Then the news got worse. I had been managing to rooms for events in which events hardly ever overlapped each other; I now would be given four more rooms and events would overlap. I then discovered that the next event I would be managing six rooms at the same time. I had to go outside for a bit after hearing this. There were so many bad things running through my head at that point; how could I possibly accomplish this crazy insane task?

We had to quickly find a solution to the four extra rooms that were being added. We had to build them to be able to intergate into our production process. Getting equipment into the rooms and setting them up wasn't too big of an issue. We had our Engineer run a bunch of blueprints and get them built. One of the issues I had was how would we be able to manage off of the video and audio assets once the content was captured? Running hard drives to all the different rooms, collecting them, and then figuring out which went where seemed like a total nightmare. I brought this issue to my boss. It'll be my task to find a way to manage this he says. I am now currently looking for some sort of A/V collaboration software or hardware. Does anything like this even exist?

Google Doc Blunders

So far it has been a week since the new site has been implemented. The docs that I had moved over from the old wiki along with the new documents that I have collaborated with my close co-workers as in the high swing of things. The issue however is that because our company is split; one crew is located in Milpitas and the other is Los Gatos, the motivation to use this tools is disconnected. Because I have learned how useful these tools are and widely use them myself, my colleagues are on the same page. At the home office in Los Gatos, people are so used to the old way of doing things that they are close minded in using a new tool.

During our weekly production meeting, I presented the fact that we at Milpitas are using the Google Docs and Google Sites resources quite often. It was helping our team be organized with training contractors, creating new procedure documents, and organizing other resources so that they are easily accessible. The argument from Los Gatos was that there was a learning curve in which they had to overcome. They did not like the idea of online collaboration because they thought it might cause confusion to who was doing what. They would like to contour using e-mail as a way of collaboration.

I have found one very valid point thus far; it's easy to implement new technology, but it is hard to get people to use it.

Google Docs - Success

An issue of training and employee collaboration has been an issue with the company I work for ever since I started. Last year while taking ITEC 830, I brought the idea of using a Ning to the table. I was asked to set one up as a trial. All of the employees seemed to like the idea but the uppers did not like it. They were worried about the look and thought it was unprofessional to use in our establishment. My argument was that the Ning would be an internal place for collaboration; no clients would ever see it. It was turned down and the ning I had set up is now in the black hole of the Internet.

I tried to introduce Google Docs in another attempt to keep collaboration going. We were using a very old wiki site called JotSpot which was set up very poorly. Information was very hard to find and the application kept crashing. Again, I was turned down. I was determined to hold on to my site. As it turns out, this week we all received a notice from IT saying that JotSpot will be closing for good. The information that we had stored there needed to be backed up or else it would be lost. There was a plea to find another solution to our wiki issue. I brought up that the Google Docs and Google Sites page I set up already had most of the information ported. Making that transition to the new site would not be hard. Unfortunately because I had used our company name for our sites page IT was unable to easily create the corporate version with the same name. Of course I was to blame for this but with a little help from our friends at Google, our company has finally adapted using a Web 2.0 tool!

The Start of a New Semester

I currently work for a web 2.0 company named ALS. We create streaming training materials for a variety of corporations. From the year I have worked here I have found that there is a flaw with our infrastructure. We seem to be a web 2.0 company whom is very again web 2.0 technology. I say this because of the lack of collaboration tools we have as employees to use. In lieu of this, I have tried to implement tools which might help our training and operation process. Unfortunately, all technologies thus far have been denied.

Recently, I was approached by my supervisor to continue to search for new and efficient ways to fix our issue. He believes that with the proper demo and backing, we may be able to change for the better. I will be looking to find better tools to collaborate in an enterprise setting with strong security. I think it will be interesting to see if Altus will be able to grow from my findings. If not, at least I will have a broader knowledge of new collaboration tools for current technologies.

I hope this topic will make a difference.