Why podcast and screencast?

Podcast – The driving factor on the podcast was primarily in understanding that there was a lot of command information coming in from across various channels. Newsletter, email, email, and announcements, internal portal, did I mention email? And to stay informed meant checking in a lot of places. The bulk of them were unclassified in nature, and could be aggregated in one location (the podcast). So why then a podcast? Part two of that question was a matter of time. Even if I knew where to look, how much time did I have to read the content of all that information? Once at work, time is usually somewhat limited, so in my quest for free time, I realized that my 1.4 hour commute was some time that I might consider sharing. As it is, I listen to a couple of stations, but for the most part, the weather, news, and market are quick, so I ended up listening to podcasts on technology and science. The point is that I gladly listened to more information because driving time was usually something I could and would easily share. Thinking this could be true for others, (average commute in DC per NPR news article is about 45 minutes each way every day), I wanted to see if people would get past the small technology barrier of getting the information from the network, onto a device that they could listen to in the car on the way to work or heading home. In this way, if we could aggregate the information for employees, and make it easy to access and listen to on time they have, they may choose to do so.

Screencast – The primary driver on the screencast was reusability. If there was a question or procedure that could be shared or demonstrated once, then people to use it to learn new skills, or be reminded of how to do it if they forget. I started to think of it as self help that people could get too before heading to the actual help desk. One of the reasons behind this was to reduce the number of classroom demonstrations I was doing, but also so I could spend my time making new content about plenty of other worthwhile topics and demonstrations. In addition to this, people could get it on demand, during their lunch break when they want to sit back in their chair and watch a “howto” video on “searching SharePoint” or one of several topics. I like to do this at home, watch a Youtube video on how to derive equations of motion while eating fried chicken. You get the point.

As for the results – just the numbers.

Over the time period of March to October;

I created roughly 21 podcasts with approximately 3445 downloads, and

I created roughly 45 screencasts, with a total of 3972 views.

On the surface, it is not apparent that I am getting the results I was looking for, and so I began to speculate about what some of the factors might be. This being driven by a recent question with regard to continuing to create them or not.

I have done a weekly podcast since about May of this year, and to date, across all the locations that I made it available, I think roughly 3200 downloads have been recorded. I have a few folks from time to time thank me for an article or two, but for the most part, those are the only numbers I can get.

I have been asking for more ideas/desired stories, in the emails that I send out with the weekly contents and to date, I have had only one person respond with a suggestion.

So what do I think were some of the challenges?

Marketing – When I asked people if they knew about it, if they were not on the weekly email list, then they did not. So I am not sure that they were being forwarded to anyone else beyond the people on the immediate list of recipients. I did not do any other marketing of my own, but in retrospect, I could have made fliers, and discussed the merits of how to effectively use it.

Accessibility – I think that having to have it on a network that required a user log in and password was a hurdle because many people just don’t want to create an account for what they view will be one benefit. Too many passwords already, and I can relate. A recommendation on this would be to grow our NIPRNET presence to allow for one log in that grants you access to email, and a few key services – one of which could be the aggregated weekly podcast.

Re-posted – I was asked to post it on a different network, and as soon as I did that, more people viewed it on the new network, but it totally defeated the premise for putting it on the original network in the first place.

Consistent – I think I lost some followership when I did not post for a week or another because I was on leave or unable to do so. This may have also been a factor.

Content – As much as I ask for ideas, I received only one in the 6 months I was making the podcasts. So the content was all original in terms of what I shared, discussed, or posted. Most of the content was stuff that employees would get in email and across disparate mechanisms, but aggregating it in the podcast seemed like a good idea.

Timing – I am not sure that our workforce today is as active in the media environment as we could be, or in my humble opinion, should be. There is also not a drive to move in that direction present, so there is only personal initiative or interest to explore alternative sharing mechanisms. Put another way, it is my belief that not many in our workforce use their smartphones to download and sync podcasts that they can listen to while they are at home. If we made this easier – it would help to demonstrate the value. I believe that over time, as more people get used to using the technology for information on demand, that this will change – but we’re just not there yet.

Now, all that being said, the question posed to me was – what kind of followership did I build up, and should this production effort be sustained?

I am afraid that I cannot answer that at this time. There is too little information to make a decision. I think the next question should be – do we market this from a leadership position, and present it as one way to aggregate information, with the option of those other mechanisms staying in place and simply using a unique identifier with those other items that would allow someone that chooses to listen to the podcast, to sort into a folder, those items that would normally end up in their input streams so that they don’t end up having to read or listen to them more than once.

As for content, the challenges that remain are getting people in those various channels of production to modify what they do only slightly to share what they are already doing, and minimize redundancy in information.

My recommendations:

With workforce input, develop a clear plan on what kind of content you want to aggregate, (added benefit of advertising this cooperatively developed product).

Host the content on the NIPRNET behind the same login as email to remove the need for separate login, and find ways to make syncing the content as easy as possible for both phone and desk/lap-top computers.

After aggregating it, tag the initial source location and products in a way that will allow people that choose to listen to the podcast to not have the information come again through the original channel – or if it does – can be auto-foldered into a location out of the workflow, (this is an effort to reduce duplication.

Revisit the content discussion on a quarterly basis, and make sure that there is a mechanism that is collocated with the download that allows for feedback and input (like – link to the podcast from a blog).

Try to get to more of an interview style podcast, not just a news podcast of someone reading the headlines. Different voices, debated views, etc… That will develop more interest and followership. In addition, if you have a section that reviews pertinent comments from the commenting mechanism – that will allow users to see how their input can effect the process and their voice can be heard.

I enjoyed the opportunity to run this experiment. I thank Jack Gumtow (CIO) for the opportunity to do this, and learn from it in doing so. I hope my sharing some of this information helps others, and I am open for questions or comments.

I would happily help anyone interested in starting or maintaining an effort similar to this one.

Cheers,

Lance Strzok

How do analysts differ from journalists? The most obvious differences are level of knowledge on a subject, and objectivity. It is my beliefthat most analysts are pretty deep in tbrms of knowledge with respect to the subject matter they write on, and as human nature would have it, they are pretty attJched to their judgments on the things that they write about and don’t necessarily seek out others to collaborate with or open theclselves up to disagreement.

Journalists on the other hand, appear to me to be openly shallow in most subject areas that th~y write on when compared to analysts,but they seem more ethically bound to deliver balanced reporting on a subject after interviewing various analysts and SME’s for onions on the matter from various angles. In this way, the various sides of the story, and the drivers and stakeholders all get some kind of view represented in the report. (Want to highlight a little with respect tel differing motives and abilities here, depth of knowledge differences, motives differences, and objectivity or cognitive dissonance impacts as well as how each potential role might yield a different result).

So taking much of what I mention above as true, I ask, “what if the Ie had journalists that were directed to write reports, with deadlines, and had to find and interview analysts across the Ie, DoD, legal, state, local, academic, and others areas in order to more fully cover a topic? That would leave more emphasis properly placed on analysts to do their job of maintaining facts and forming and defending positions, rather then writing reports and adding to the noise. In addition to this, it would tend to have a positive influence on relationships between analysts an their willingness to collaborate when they start to see the influence that their argument held up, or not, who agreed with them, who did not and why. All these are good things in my mind and might alleviate some of the agency vs agency stuff that seems to eat away at the collective effort.
Now I believe that we have the tools to author joint products, like Living Intelligence, Intellipublia, and more, but how we would task this group of Ie level Journalists is another matter to consider. I am less certain about a common tasking system that would allow the head of the journalists to direct efforts against stories in a way that would meet intelligence requirements of all those that are submitting Intelligence requirements to different requirements processes. That being said, if we were going to make this group of journalists, then we could ptobably set up some folks that know how to direct this kind of activity and are familiar with the groups out there, and the general types of requirements that are needed such that they could direct journalists to meet them.

So in short, there would be analysts, sme’s and journalists. A directing mechanism for the journalists that takes input from key stakeholders, and a truly joint product that woul:d have the names of the analysts and agencies that contributed to them, thereby reducing the number of redundant reports that are created, and fostering the kind of collaboration and solid products that I believe we should be creating as a community.
I would think that creating this group and giving them the charter and responsibilities to do this job would be more likely than analysts all across the community getting reallylgood at collaborating and sharing in that way that we have hoped. Again, the difference in motivation and bias may be slowing or preventing the achievement of the environment we are trying to create.

Cheers!
Please let me know what you think.
Lance.

Some responses from another area are below.

(Reader 1) I read a lot of topical blogs written by journalists, and I have say for many of them, I hold their analysis in higher esteem
than much of what I read in finished intelligence. Now, journalists are just as capable of having biases, but most of
them state it up front, or you can tell it by whom they are writing for. I think professional journalists are better at writing a tight storyline, keeping to the narrative, and in many cases offer interesting insights that many others would miss.

(Reader 2) I have to respectfully disagree. Some contemporary journalists seem to publish opinion pieces under the heading of articles. I have seen instances that present as the journalist going into the process of reporting with their own agenda instead of being objective. In this age of computers and instant gratification it also seems in trying to reduce the reporting to the short time span it’s presented in, the message is often distorted or lost entirely. The dearth of print media and conglomeration of newspapers further reduces the impact of responsible journalism. I am not saying this is necessarily the fault of the journalist, it’s the just the system they are forced to operate within. Don’t get me wrong, there are responsible journalists out there but there are many sloppy ones as well.
So too is the analyst field. But this is a problem of our own making. For too many years the attitude of “knowledge is
power” and each agency’s artificial stovepiping discouraged the sharing of information. This attitude became ingrained
and as we all know it is hard to change as human nature, as well as corporate mindset attests. As a result the problem
becomes not so much as how to share but in finding out who is working on what. Reinventing the wheel became
commonplace,. Then too the lack of social media skills among the older generation of analysts further compounded the
porblem.
But programs like this blog for example s~gnal a change in direction. Education is the key. The newer analysts are more
comfortable using social media in their daily life so it translates easily into their analytical practices. Now it is a matter of
“advertising” who is doing what in the various agencies so that connections can be made between analysts. In addition, no
competent analyst should be producing arliyfinished intelligence without it being vetted. This is just common sense in my opinion. Are we going to have an opinio~? Yes. Are we going to possibly resent criticism? Again, yes. This is human
nature. I truly believe the vast majority0tanalysts today get the fact that producing for production’s sake is not
appropriate. We hopefully realize each intlividual is ultimately responsible for each and every call and their decision could ultimately affect the very lives of the indiliduals using it. I would hope they would do their very best and ensure it is the most accurate infonnationlanalysis possib e. Bottom line if you are putting your name to it, don’t you want to make sure you get it right?

(Reader 3) Interesting thoughts, Lance.
Reminds me of the mix between bloggers and what they call “Developer Advocates” or what not in the software world. As
this whole Internet-hosted, “cloud” and Iaas/Paas/Saas thing has taken off, there’s a lot more direct interaction between a
company and an individual delevoper.
So where you previously had tech Journalists reporting at magazines like Dr. Dobbs, and then tech bloggers like
TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc, you nor also have people working at cloud hosting companies that write articles or
screencasts on what their company provides.
I guess they are technically marketing/sales folks, but they are similar to a cross between a journalist and an analyst in that they might not be a SME, but they aren’t teallY just offering quick/shallow news articles, either.
Personally, from my limited viewpoint, I itill don’t really care for this idea of news-reporting style analysis, where an
article comes, goes and never gets update1 or pointed to again and that’s where LivingJntcJ really seems like a great idea.
But I can definitely see the need for someone who acts a a go-between for analysts who are too busy/too involved to sit
and chat it out with others every day, or ate naturally better at quiet thinking and research, versus interviewing or
collaborating across issues.
That’s why I dropped out of my own journalism ideals back in college – trying to get people to talk to me was a pain (and
scared me), whereas messing with a computer was a whole lot easier.

(Reader 4) +1 to james. Saying analysts need to be more like journalists in order to incorporate more balance is like saying chocolate needs to be more like vanilla in order to be more chocolatey.

(Reader 5) It is my belief that most analysts are pret deep in terms of knowledge with respect to the subject matte’ they write on” Man, I would love to work where you work.

Some ideas on the categories behind the “like or plus1″ could be:

Agree

Disagree

Funny

Personal

Useful

Breaking

Spam

Check Facts (Thx Che)

Biased (Thx Che)

Having this option would help in categorizing content, and help others to understand why you hit the button in the first place. Although as (Jack) points out, not all things will warrant a comment, but it would be nice to be able to do so if you were so compelled.

Apparently Slashdot has done something similar to this, and it appears to have worked very well for them. (Thx Robert R.)

With that being said, what would you want to see as options to tag it with, and would you take that moment to do so?

Cheers!

In pursuit of sincere and additive collaboration, we must understand what collaboration is, the value of achieving it, what factors effect it,  and how to set up conditions for a successful collaborative environment that are optimized for the product, and sustainable for the future.

Many of the conversations I have on getting people to adopt collaborative technologies are focused on improving the ease of use of a particular tool or service, how to link it to other tools, and improving how they interact with one another to put useful information in front of an end user.  It is believed that we will get more users to use it as a collaborative tool or service if it is more intuitive and fun.  We look at Facebook, and can talk about the numbers of users, ease of use, no users manual, and go on about its growth and the platform that it is for sharing information and maintaining situational awareness.  We labor under a false belief that if we could somehow make our tools and services that easy, than people would share more and collaborate more.  When in truth, we have been putting great collaborative tools and capabilities backed by leadership and guidance in front of our workforce for over a decade now and have only moderate gains in collaborative activity and the network effect to speak to.

Although amazing progress on tools and services have taken place, and are indeed important, I don’t believe that this is where the battle for the hearts and minds of our potential collaborators  is.  Rather, I believe that the value of collaboration, how much effort it takes, and the alignment of tools, services, and processes that optimize collaborative opportunities while simultaneously removing older systems and processes is essential to maximizing the various aspects of knowledge products.

This “build it and they will come” sentiment has taken us pretty far, but there is growing recognition that the tools and services alone are not getting us that much further down the path. Tool fatigue, and password overload as well as watching software come and go over the years has taken its toll on the willingness of the workforce to engage and learn new software tools to the point of people just saying – “No”. In addition to that, we have left the old, comfortable tools in place rather than burning the ship behind us, and forcing the use of new – uncomfortable,  processes and tools. This may well be another factor in why there has been only moderate gains over the last ten years in the methods and the numbers of collaboratively produced products.

Why do tools matter?

E-mail and client side authoring software like MS Word, are largely responsible for shaping our methods of collaborating to date, and they perpetuate an individualistic authoring environment and linear processes that are quite inefficient.  What is needed is to shift from tools that support very private, inefficient content creation that is linearly pushed through an editing model followed by a dissemination process, into tools and software that facilitate situational awareness of changes, and continuous engagement and monitoring options across the continuum of activity that is knowledge production, dissemination, and updating. One that is algorithmically involved with discovering, suggesting and notifying others with similar interests, responsibilities, or expertise, and helping to connect them.  In other words, implement processes and modify the existing suite of tools to enable personalization of an authoring / engagement environment that optimizes the desired collaborative activities that benefit the knowledge worker and the knowledge product.

What needs to change?

A sense of pride in what we can achieve over that of what any one individual can achieve on their own, and a stake in ownership of the knowledge products that bear our organizational name over that of a product that has any one individuals name.  A willingness to view all production from our workforce as something we are each individually accountable for, and that each item reflects our culture of excellence and is of the highest standards and quality.

Barriers to collaborative environment establishment?

Along with the modification of tools, processes and ownership in a brand, there is a longstanding perception of individual worth that is fostered by “putting people in a workplace and establishing incentives for competing, rather than sharing. We set up processes as barriers to creative thinking and learning along with policies that fail to accommodate how people actually work together” – (John B).  We also see individual names on knowledge products along side that of our organization, thereby crediting the product to the person, not the process or collaborative environment that has created a piece of work. This individual achievement is further encouraged by our organizational awards and recognition of individual efforts, many of which carry financial reward. This perpetuates the individual author over that of the community of interest authoring of knowledge products, and sends a clear signal to authors that is in opposition to the desired collaborative environment.

Recognition

It takes work

It takes time

It takes real thought, patience, courage and professionalism

Willingness to educate

Willingness to be honest

A sense of team

A firm understanding of and belief in the benefits of the collaborative process

It takes tools that support each of the above and are embedded in the process

Communications, incentives, training, and recognition need to convey and support the messages that support a collaborative environment

So what do we need to get comfortable with in order to optimize collaborative benefits and activities as individuals?

Collaboration, is not particularly easy, even in the best of environments where people are seated at the same table, given even footing to speak from, and with a common goal in mind for which their expertise has been selected. Yet, it bears good fruit, while improving understanding by all group members.  This isn’t what you would normally do, nor how you would normally do it, but you are going to go, and with good intention, represent the information you believe, and the viewpoints you have in the creation of a product that several people will be working on. You must be articulate and professional in arguing your viewpoint, or if during that professional discussion you change your view in light of new information, be willing to express how or why your viewpoint has changed. In the case where your view may not be represented, you should ensure that documentation of the fact of your discussion is incorporated into the record, so that others can see the viewpoints that are opposed were discussed, and remaining arguments are supported individually with sourcing.

In sitting down and chewing on Individual productivity and Team productivity, here is a list of things I am comparing:

Speed

Richness

Quality

Points of View

Agreements and Disagreements

Knowledge transfer

Signal to noise

Author/s

Outlier – repetitiveness

Quality vs experience

Chart of speed vs richness, quality, and number of collaborators

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Contributing Authors: John Bordeaux,

—

Again, please feel free to share thoughts, this is a start, and will be finished in the next couple of days.

Thanks – Lance.

First a word on what screencasting is – Basically, it is software that takes between 10 and 50 pictures of the screen per second while it records your voice as you demonstrate some activity on your computer. Then it can convert those pictures into something much like a movie with audio and you can share that movie with others. In general, it is a great way to explain and share how you do things with software or computers. Video in the form of a camcorder or phone video recorder generally requires more storage than screencasting software, but is usually better used for showing processes not involving a computer. You see a lot of Youtube videos that use actual video recordings to demonstrate how to do things with physical processes, and screencasts for things on computer screens. But as we do more and more with computers, it makes sense that screencasts will become more useful in this way.

I spend a fair amount of time sharing what I know with people I interact with. I like to help, and I like the look on people’s faces when the light bulb goes off and they see how they might want to use some particular piece of software for something they are working with, or alternatively, when they say that they have been trying to find something to do a certain task or make a process easier for them and I manage to show them something that meets their needs.

But I started to realize that sending me around to train everyone was not the answer, and that creating screencasts that demonstrate doing something and then sharing that screencast was repeatable, on demand, and frees up time for me to work on creating new content instead of spending all my time teaching the same processes and procedures over and over again. This expands to training in general. If it is done on a computer, than screencasting gets you a lot of bang for your buck.

Furthermore, if you have a help desk, or a place where people generally can ask for help or questions, you can post a link to the screencast that addresses that problem or question and you may have just averted a trouble call or spending man hours helping someone else understand a process that has already been documented and explained fairly well. Another really nice thing about screencasting out the functionality or process that some piece of software or several pieces of software can do is that even if I did happen to give the training to someone at some point in time, maybe they forgot, or needed a refresher. Also, it can be delivered on demand, from any time zone, without cutting into my time of creating more content and dicovering what else needs to be explained.

So it appeals to me in several ways, it captures an idea and makes it easy to share with lots of others, and it can be recalled on demand as well as freeing me up to do other meaningful work. It also fits the learning styles of a good number of people that are visual learners. People that like to see it done, and think about how they might use it to do something they need done. So over all, I think of  savings, time, and repeatability as good reasons to use this medium for software or computing activities that you want to share.

Enabling your workforce to create these videos and help each other learn how to do things that they do could prove to be an incredible force multiplier. Think of it as the “self help” desk. If you have one location where the videos are stored, and if you incentivise creating the videos by your employees, the ones that get voted up as most useful could be a real hit, and share best practices across the command. Not to mention you can categorize them and tag them so that when someone needs help with MS Excel, they can find the help they need in video form, or hit one of the chat rooms on the subject.

What do you need to make a sceencast? Well, a microphone and the software I posted about in my previous blog posts. Beyond that, you might want to make a screencast of how you use that software to allow your employees to come to understand it, although if you can create one that helps with the correct settings, beyond that it is fairly intuitive.

Like I mentioned earlier, after you enable them to create content, and a place to put it, then find a way to incentivise it a little so that people create content and share the things that make them so successful. If you hang the videos in an environment where people can vote and comment on videos, you could start to find the folks that really know how to convey knowledge and share. It also captures some of the corporate or tacit knowledge before it leaves the organization.

I have seen screencasting used to help launch software that you are going to start offering at work so that people can see it and comment on it before you actually launch it

Other common uses for screencasts are:

* Screencasts can help demonstrate and teach the use of software features

* Software developers can demonstrate their work

* Screencasts are helpful to submit along with reporting a bug  where the movie takes the place of a written explanation

* Show others how a task is accomplished in a specific software environment

Cost/Savings:

* Presentations can be captured and shared for those that could not attend the original lecture, saving the cost of travel and hotel costs and the time lost in getting too and from the event

*Considering the high cost of instructor, faculty led training, and most computer based training, screencasting is a good candidate for imparting high-quality knowledge at a low cost from a larger distribution of expertise across your organization

* Screencasts usually capture software better than a video being taken of the activity on a computer screen, and take up less storage as well as easier to stream and share later in a downloadable form

* Educators are embracing screencasts as another means of integrating technology into the curriculum as well as sharing what a student may have missed if they could not attend class, and it creates the potential for online courses on that topic or subject

Limitations:

* You can capture a screencast using hardware such as an RGB or DVI frame grabber card. This approach does not have the OpenGL limitations associated with several Microsoft based solutions

All in all, I see it as an effective and fairly inexpensive to provide a mechanism for creating and sharing process, content, and ideas on demand and with little overhead. That is the reason that I encourage any organization to enable their people with this software and hardware.

Cheers!

But – Here is an alternative that I found to be easier.

Still uses Camstudio and the Lossless codec to make the avi file.

The process diverges there. New piece of software – Freemake Video Converter after downloading and installing the software, you then use this software to open the avi file you created with CamStudio, and then after it is imported, you can use the right hand button to edit the file and save it again as an avi.

After saving as an avi file, it is now the edited avi file.

You can convert it to mp4 to use locally, or upload the avi file to Youtube and then it will be of high quality, which you can turn around and then download the file as an mp4 that they convert it too.

Now your movie can be accessed from anywhere. For an example of this process, see this screencast.

CamStudio

CamStudio lossless codec

Freemake Video Converter

—-

Alternatively- Freemake Video Converter can be replaced with this older software -

Anyvideoconverter (old but good)

AVIdemux (old but good)

—-

Launch CamStudio and I recommend the settings I use below in this post.  Record a test section with voice and Save as an AVI file.

After capturing the screensession, I now recommend using Freemake Video Converter  which can do the conversion and is a nice editor.

open the file with Freemake Video Converter and save the file as an mp4 file.

Edit the screencast with the button on the right after you import the video.
Save the changes in the mp4 format

—-

In a little more detail, (thanks Karen),

On a computer, open the software tool called CamStudio. This tool allows the user to take a screen capture an estimated thirty frames per second and also captures audio.
Open the software that is going to be demonstrated or open the target software, such as Microsoft Excel 2007 or Microsoft Word 2007
In CamStudio, configure the settings for optimal capture of the software activities, as in this particular case, the steps in how to use Microsoft Excel 2007 or Microsoft Word 2007.
After the optimization, start the recording and begin the software demonstration. (As a side note, if a mistake is made, do not stop recording. Pause yourself and take a deep breath. Gather your thoughts and start again at a point just before you made the mistake.
When the demonstration is complete, press the stop button in CamStudio to stop the recording.
Save the file as it is as an AVI file.

Distribute the learning video to the appropriate site for others to view.

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In my initial post (most of it is above) – on the topic of screencasting I describe the software I use and provided links to them. In this post I will describe in greater detail the settings that give me a good compromise in size and quality of voice and quality of screen image.

For the CamStudio Version 2.0 part,

File – none

Region – Fixed Region (fixed region is a good choice, and I use 640×480 and if you keep that fixed region the same and use it for all of your recordings as well as leaving all your settings alone, then you can use AVIdemux to append files to one another. Add and intro, and extro to each recording if you want too. You do this by opening the intro file, then appending the body file and appending the extro file after that. Then you have one file from 3 files. Back to the settings.

Options – Video Options – Compressor – Camstudio Lossless Codec v1.4, Quality 100, Set Key frames every 30 frames, Configure  – LZO level 5, Framerates Capture frames every 50 milliseconds, Playback rate 20 frames / sec, Audio Adjust

Options – Cursor Options – Show Cursor, use actual cursor, Highlight cursor, circle, halfsize, color light blue

Options – Record Audio from Microphone

Options – Audio Options – Default input device, 22.05 kHz, stereo, 16-bit, compressed format MPEG layer 3, interleave every 100 milliseconds

Options – Enable Autopan

Options – Autopan, Autopan Speed 99

Options – Program Options – Save settings on exit, Capture translucent layered windows, Recording thread priority – Highest, Name of AVI – Ask for filename

View – Normal View
——

After creating a recording of the session with those settings, you will be asked to save it with a file name and a .avi extension.  Thenk it will take a moment to save the .avi file after the file is made, it will open in CamStudio software and be ready for you to play. For example, I made a settings screencast for this piece of software, and it was 20.1 MB in size as an avi file.

Now, according to my other post, we will open the file with AnyvideoConverter and save it as an MP4 file.

The latest version of Anyvideoconverter is 3.2.1 but I’ll read the settings off of the current version I have just in cast they do not transfer over with the update.

Customized MP4 Movie

Video Options – Video Codec Mpeg4, Frame Size 640 X 480, Video Bitrate 1024, Video framerate 10, Encode pass 1,

Audio Options – Audio codec AAC, Audio Bitrate 128, Sample rate 44100, Audio channel 1, A/V sync default.

After conversion, the file is now a 8.65 MB mp4 file, instead of a 20.1 MB avi file.

I then verified that it played in a media player like VLC media player (another free bit of software).

Now I open AVIdemux to edit the mp4 file into a smaller mp4 file.

—-

AVIdemux settings are as follows:

The defaults on the left menu are set to Video – Copy, Audio – Copy, and Format AVI which you will change to MP4 using the drop down menu. This will output an mp4 file format.

Editing is a little tricky, and unforgiving in that after you select a section using the brackets A-B, if you delete what is in between them,  then that section is gone. You want this, but you wan to be sure.

I eventually resorted to marking the frames, for each piece (stepping frame to frame) and then manually entering them and then when I am sure that is the selection, delete it.

Save the file with a file name and a .mp4 extension and it should be ready to go. The only other issues is if you edit a piece off the front, you may not start with a frame that has information in it about the rest of the file (keyframe), so you can navigate to a keyframe (I…) and edit off what is before that, or just not touch the front of the file.

As for distributing the file now, you can choose Youtube, or you can choose a similar service.

Also, email a link to the screencast to friends with the topic.

I will occasionally improve this post, or write a new one when the changes are significant.

I may also go back and move some of my suggestions to the how to post, and leave just the settings here.

If you have questions or comments on this process, please leave them in the comments below and I will try to help when I see questions.

Cheers!

I suspect the future of writing in the office place will shift from Word and Open Office to open platforms where the words that you write are what is most important, and computers and editors will apply style, images and links to related content to enrich the content as a workflow process following its initial creation.

This makes the transportation and transformation of the words from one product into another so much easier, and style can be changed quickly and easily for past and future content. It is also easier to use and re-use it again in other products.

Think about it, how many times does the Word file you spend half an hour tweaking just so it looks right end up in several places and different platforms looking completely different? My own experience in this has lead me to writing in blogs, because it is just so easy to do. The files are small, transportable, accessible, open with a simple browser (no special or expensive software) and have some of them have built in spell checking as I write – not as a separate function. I can write from my desktop, laptop, phone, or TV and the content can be styled in any way I or someone else pleases. Not to mention that people can index it and discover it, as well as comment on it and share it with others quickly and easily. It also fits with my hope of where things will go in the future with regard to IT and work. Simple really, all I should need is an internet connection and a browser. Which is also why my recent work has been focused on browser wars and how they are doing against one another.

So to wrap things up, spend that extra half hour working on the content, collaborating with colleagues, checking your sources, and making your inner author voice shine through, and give a blog a chance – you might just come to like it for the same reasons I do.

-Lance.

A little background
I recall hearing that the average commute time in DC was over a half an hour. I commute about an hour and fifteen minutes a day, each way. So I usually check NPR news headlines, and about a half hour of 103.5 to catch the main stories, weather, traffic etc…

So how do I use/engage my brain for the rest of the commute? I turned to podcasts. And in doing so, I found many good sources of relevant information and news I could use to maintain situational awareness with regard to issues I am involved with at work. I am aware of the latest developments in the areas I am most concerned with, and I hear varying viewpoints on those issues from several sources over the course of a few days. I have subscribed to individual podcasts, and I use a podcast streaming service called Stitcher for some of the broader interest areas and what others in my field are sharing and talking about.

Thoughts
As I started to think more about it, I realized that if I were to compare the costs of my minutes – the minutes in the commute were pretty cheap. Cost here being the cost of what do I give up to listen to a podcast on my way to work vs what is the cost of the time I would spend reading all of that information while at work. Or put another way, what can I not do while I am locating and reading these articles or bits of information?

It dawned on me that most people are interested in the information that our communications committees are putting out across several formats and publications that include a newsletter, emails, banners, signs, internal web page, etc… But, when I thought about it, what I wanted was one source, and I wanted to move that source to less expensive minutes, otherwise – I was not likely to digest all of those different resources, and I am missing out on useful information.

Motivation
So there is was. I wanted to know those things, but they were spread out, and using expensive work minutes instead of cheap commuting minutes. (Commuter minutes, gym minutes, elevator minutes, lunch minutes etc…)

That is the motivation for consolidating those bits of information into a podcast and allowing the workforce to access the information from home, download the mp3 files to a smartphone, or mp3 player, and listen to the issues that might otherwise go unknown.

If you are interested in the mechanics of how I am creating the podcast, the previous blog entry to this covers that pretty well, and I may add another when I get to the point where I am interviewing instead of just reading the news.

Question for you – where are your cheapest minutes? I don’t think my list is big enough, and I would like to know when you listen or might listen to a podcast.

If you have any comments, or questions – please leave them below in the comments, I will respond to them and thanks for reading.

Content gathering
- Gathered from various sources, and be sure to get the source information for each part
* Official Emails
* Company portal highlights
* Interviews with people
* Newsletters (internal and external)
* Questions
* Ask for content from Social Media sources
* Send email request for input with links to pages
* Make some phone calls to personally invite someone to interview with you
* RSS feed for items that matter to everyone
- I put all of the content into a shownotes page on a wiki for the production end of things and invite (encourage) others to begin to edit there, otherwise I just put the content in myself from email, or whatever source they are sending it to me from
- After writing it all down and smoothing it over for speaking it aloud, I am ready to record
- Create a section at the beginning in which you mention the contents of the episode, and the date so that listeners may choose to listen or skip that particular podcast (thank you readers for that feedback)

Recording
- I started to record them as mp3 files with a Zoom H1 hand held recorder, but now under lessons learned, I will save them as wave files since the Levelator tool provided by the Conversations Network takes that as an input later in the process and I want to reduce the number of conversions (which only add noise as evidenced in the first podcast). I use the 48khz sample rate with 16 bit because it is the best that can be converted by the Levelator or converted to mp3. I also use the autolevel setting on the back, as well as the low cut on.

During Recording
- Have a glass of something you like to drink near by
- I don’t mind making a long recording, just make sure that if you make a mistake while recording, to pause, regain composure, pick the spot you wan to redo, and after a noticeably long enough time start the section over. In this way when editing, you will clearly see a long pause that will indicate the location of the edit. (Thanks to that tip from Robert and Tiffany Rapplean from their podcast – Intellectual Icebergs)
- Find a quite place, and give some thought to the room you are in with regard to sound waves and how they will arrive at the microphone as well as materials that will absorb sound

Save Raw Recording
- Save the raw recording before doing anything else and store in a folder

Levelator
- You can use the Levelator tool to even out the different levels in the sound file and bring it to a consistent output sound level so that episodes are generally equal from show to show
Editing
- I use Audacity to Edit the wave files, (again, switching to wave files to reduce the number of conversions that reduce sound quality)
- Edit out the bad sections and shorten up long pauses
- Add intro and extro music or words as desired
- Insert commercials as desired (I don’t do this – yet)
- There are other resources within Audacity to do more editing
- Save this file as an edited wave file so that if you have to add sections (insert additional entries), that will be easy

Convert
- Now using Audacity export the edited file as an mp3 file for upload to the server

Last Listen
- Give the show the last listen while following along with the shownotes
- Make sure all the content that is in the show notes is represented (I forgot a section in my first podcast)
- Make time hacks in the shownotes so that if people want to skip to a section, they can do so

Upload Link and Market
- Upload the file to the host server
- Copy the show notes and time hacks from the wiki page where they were created into a blog post and email for linking and feedback
- Make links wherever possible in the shownotes to sources and important nouns
- Link to the podcast, shownotes, and feedback from various locations
- Include a link to subscribe to the podcast or updates when possible
- Post the blog, and verify that all the links work – if not, fix them
- Let your users know that there is a new podcast available with a link to automatically download the mp3 file

- email the podcast distro list you may have and include in the email the time hacks and topics for the show

Follow up on Feedback
- Make sure you stay engaged and follow up on feedback that comes back to you on the blog

If you have additional thoughts on improving this process, please let me know, I aim to make it better as I go, and thanks for your thoughts in advance.

I looked at a few government agencies that are using the Twitter service looking for use cases that I might recommend using in our organization, and with a specific purpose.

Here is the list of activities I observed on their Twitter pages:

- Post links to photos related to employees and their activities at work and in the community
- Links to articles that involve their employees or business activities
- Announcements
- Links to charity events
- Links to Podcasts and Videos
- Weather/Emergency alerts (Open/closed/late arrival/early departure/Telework etc…)
- Visitors
- Safety notices
- Travel Advisories
- Uniform Changes
- Contests
- Updates on projects or activities of the business
- Links to reference or other resources
- Job announcements
- Seeking skills or equipment announcements
- Events that influence Employees or Business Partners or Customers
- Links to business mentions in the news or other media

Of the items on the list above, I am recommending the following for my organization:

- Job announcements
- Weather/Emergency announcements
- Travel Alerts
- Events that influence Employees or Business Partners or Customers
- Links to our activities in the local community

Getting Started

- No associated costs
- Can start immediately
- Link to the Twitter feed from the Organizational Homepage on the Internet
- Start with an initial post that links to an article that describes the intended use of the feed and how employees, customers, and partners might want to follow it.

As for who should have the ability to update the posts to the business feed, I would recommend 3 people fill that role, and that requests for posts be sent to those individuals through existing chains of command pertaining to the individual submitting the request with specific words in the email subject line that identify it as a post so that it can be viewed and acted upon immediately by one of the posters (ex… Twitter Feed update request). Candidates for those three people would likely be people that already handle business announcements.

If you have other ideas, please add them to the comments below, and I’ll try to add them to the content in this article in the near future.

Tweet

—-

Two concepts of telework;
1) Work from home (the main thrust of this article)
2) Work from a location close to home that supports work activities (lease a desk at another building that has the network connectivity and access required – a second article if desired)

Business Pros

- Maternity
- Sick leave
- Phone call costs
- Food choices are your own, not what is available in the cafeteria (save money in food costs/ healthy choices).
- Handicapped workers have options from home
- Parking
- Savings to analysts ($400) per month in my case in gas alone
- Time saved in commute 2.5 hours in my case
- Tools required for the job – Software that helps make analysts more productive is available at home
- Bandwidth at home may be better than at work – and is subtracted from business bandwidth use, therefore bandwidth at work is better
-Hiring incentive
- Retention incentive

Business Cons

Source = http://fcw.com/Articles/2010/04/08/Teleworking-evolution.aspx?Page=1
-“There are challenges: you get less face time, you can’t do all the work from home, there can be limited accessibility, people might think you aren’t really working,” said Steve Koenig, director for industry analysis at the Consumer Electronics Association.
-Bandwidth constraints through the technology used may cause slowness
- WRT facetime, how much facetime do you really get with your manager?

Enabling technologies

- Google Voice
- Unified Communications
- DC Telework Solutions
- VM ware
- Google Docs
- Drop Box

Employee Pros
-

Employee Cons
-

Business savings (money)

-More savings are expected over time because of the hires the county won’t have to make — due to the increased output from its existing workforce.Source=

http://faribault.com/news.php?viewStory=104640

Business costs
-

- “A lot of information in an office is passed passively or informally,” he said. “So we are still adjusting and addressing things.” Source=

http://faribault.com/news.php?viewStory=104640

Shaw estimated a 25 percent increase in productivity, but that does come at an up-front cost.

Startup costs are $1,500 more for those working from home, according to county documents. Those estimates are based on a total of 50 county employees telecommuting. Once 100 users are added to the current system, an additional $18,000 is needed in infrastructure improvements to the county’s computer system.

“I’m definitely a supporter,” said IT Director Melissa Reeder. “But costs do not go down when you add large numbers of users to the system.”

After the initial start-up costs, telecommuting is not, as a whole, less costly. During a standard four-year technology cycle, those employees working from home still cost several hundred more dollars in upkeep.

She also said the pilot study did not factor in overall technology maintenance for telephones, computers and Internet — including licensing and labor.

But the commissioners saw those costs as manageable compared to the “real” cost savings: Labor and space.
Source=

http://faribault.com/news.php?viewStory=104640

Additional ideas related to telework-
- Keep even spread across the week, rotate to keep it fair, and lottery or luck for initial days
- If you telecommute 1 day, rotate on an annual basis by two workweek days Friday goes to Tuesday, etc…
- Traffic congestion
- Statistically, fewer accidents
- Educate managers and workforce on how the program is run – add to cornerstone
- Hiring benefit
- Retention benefit
- CO2 emissions
- What does being distributed mean to hacking attempts?
- Telework success improves COOP success
- Bad weather options
- Average commute? 37.7 miles (one way) Source = http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/2008cpr/chap15.htm#5
- Wireless
- Reduce command footprint within the building, and lease out additional space – potentially for the case two situation in which local Federal Employees that work for someone else can access networks not available from home. Unintended consequences of employees from diverse agencies co-located could prove to be amazing!)
- More flexible work hours
- Reduce heating and cooling costs
- Reduce electrical energy consumption
- Reduce the total number of machines and the per unit cost of replacing and maintaining them
- We will have to look closely across the organization to determine which jobs can be done remotely and how many days a week that job can be done remotely
- Telework should be framed as a privilege, not an entitlement, and it is maintained and revisited every year to determine effectiveness
-Planning ahead and having some work related projects that you can work on pre-defined should be a part of that plan
- Must be results based, monitored, and a part of the employees annual performance evaluation
- Lockers at work that allow desks to be universal when employees come in. Grab your picture, leave your lunch, have a seat, log in, and get to work locally.
-

——
Source=

http://faribault.com/news.php?viewStory=104640

“All the participants said their quality of life improved, they were more organized and got more done,” he said. “I would call it a success.”
—-
Source = http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217919

When you pay workers for their time, they’re willing to give you as much of it as you are willing to pay for. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re maximizing productivity during that time. If you told workers that they can have the rest of the week off as soon as they complete their assigned tasks and meet their deadlines for the week, you would find that five days of effort can probably be compressed to two and have a very empty office after Tuesday while everyone is out golfing.

Workers know, though, that they have to be present in the office from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday regardless of how quickly or effectively work gets completed, so instead the work gets dragged out. Finishing quickly is likely to result in additional assignments to fill the time, so there is no incentive to maximize performance. Instead, the work week is filled with unproductive time — chatting with co-workers, reading personal e-mail, surfing the Web, smoking breaks, long lunches, etc.

*

Home > Human Resources > Managing Employees > Telecommuting Is Good for Employees and Employers
Telecommuting Is Good for Employees and Employers
Many managers struggle to embrace telecommuting, but it makes happier workers and has many benefits for the company as well.
By Tony Bradley | January 21, 2011
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Comments (8) Share 92
PCWorld

As technology evolves, many of the barriers that have traditionally limited telecommuting continue to disappear. The tedious standard of spending 40 hours a week sitting in a cubicle is fading as employers and workers both embrace the benefits associated with telecommuting.

When you pay workers for their time, they’re willing to give you as much of it as you are willing to pay for. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re maximizing productivity during that time. If you told workers that they can have the rest of the week off as soon as they complete their assigned tasks and meet their deadlines for the week, you would find that five days of effort can probably be compressed to two and have a very empty office after Tuesday while everyone is out golfing.

Workers know, though, that they have to be present in the office from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday regardless of how quickly or effectively work gets completed, so instead the work gets dragged out. Finishing quickly is likely to result in additional assignments to fill the time, so there is no incentive to maximize performance. Instead, the work week is filled with unproductive time — chatting with co-workers, reading personal e-mail, surfing the Web, smoking breaks, long lunches, etc.

A research study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and published by the National Communication Association found, “Employees who telecommute the majority of the work week are more satisfied with their jobs compared to those working mostly in the office because working remotely alleviates more stress than it creates.”

Kathryn Fonner, lead researcher for the study, explains, “Results of the study pointed to multiple reasons why telework is linked to high job satisfaction, namely that employees working remotely are, on average, shielded from much of the distracting and stressful aspects of the workplace, such as office politics, interruptions, constant meetings and information overload.”

*

Home > Human Resources > Managing Employees > Telecommuting Is Good for Employees and Employers
Telecommuting Is Good for Employees and Employers
Many managers struggle to embrace telecommuting, but it makes happier workers and has many benefits for the company as well.
By Tony Bradley | January 21, 2011
Print Email Share
Comments (8) Share 92
PCWorld

As technology evolves, many of the barriers that have traditionally limited telecommuting continue to disappear. The tedious standard of spending 40 hours a week sitting in a cubicle is fading as employers and workers both embrace the benefits associated with telecommuting.

When you pay workers for their time, they’re willing to give you as much of it as you are willing to pay for. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re maximizing productivity during that time. If you told workers that they can have the rest of the week off as soon as they complete their assigned tasks and meet their deadlines for the week, you would find that five days of effort can probably be compressed to two and have a very empty office after Tuesday while everyone is out golfing.

Workers know, though, that they have to be present in the office from 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday regardless of how quickly or effectively work gets completed, so instead the work gets dragged out. Finishing quickly is likely to result in additional assignments to fill the time, so there is no incentive to maximize performance. Instead, the work week is filled with unproductive time — chatting with co-workers, reading personal e-mail, surfing the Web, smoking breaks, long lunches, etc.

A research study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and published by the National Communication Association found, “Employees who telecommute the majority of the work week are more satisfied with their jobs compared to those working mostly in the office because working remotely alleviates more stress than it creates.”

Kathryn Fonner, lead researcher for the study, explains, “Results of the study pointed to multiple reasons why telework is linked to high job satisfaction, namely that employees working remotely are, on average, shielded from much of the distracting and stressful aspects of the workplace, such as office politics, interruptions, constant meetings and information overload.”

Think about it for a minute. Even if the amount of non-productive time is the same to the employer, working from home enables workers to put the “wasted” time to better use. Instead of just chatting or surfing, the worker can take care of household chores and tasks that have to be done but normally fill up “personal” time — laundry, dishes, prepping dinner. That also means that when the work day is done, the worker is free to actually use the personal time for more enriching activities than simple mundane chores.

There are a variety of other benefits for both the worker and the employer. No commuting enables the worker to avoid the stress and dangers of rush hour traffic and reclaim many hours of time that weren’t even being compensated anyway. Not sharing a work environment reduces the chances that a cold or flu virus can spread throughout a department and cripple productivity, and not having to get up and drive to work enables even marginally sick workers to continue being productive from the comfort of home. (sick leave)

Businesses can also reduce costs associated with the office itself — the size of the office, the furniture, the electricity used, the cost of heating and cooling the office space, etc.

Small and medium businesses in particular should embrace cloud-based productivity and collaboration platforms such as Google Docs or Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services (soon to be rebranded as Office 365). Services like Box.net, Dropbox, and Syncplicity also provide a means of sharing information between remote co-workers, and even online tools like Skype and Facebook enable communication and collaboration. Bottom line — the tools are out there and they are free, or at least very affordable.

—-
Source = http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/5-reasons-you-should-care-about-the-flexible-workforce/

Flexibility as a recruitment tool – Quickly do a mental check of how many people you know, either at the office or personally, who require “flexibility” as a key requirement to their job. They may be caring for an ailing parent, work two jobs, move often with their spouse/partner, or have young children. Regardless of why, they make decisions on where to work not just based on pay and benefits. Rather, they balance those items with how flexible their job can be in terms of hours, days of the week, commuting requirements, etc. Be flexible, because it has value in the minds of the candidate you are trying to hire or the key employee you want to retain.

It’s only getting bigger – Demand for comprehensive, real-time communication with a company’s labor force will continue to grow. Companies large and small are managing a larger, less rigid network of employees, contractors, and part-time labor. More team members are working odd hours, or working in different cities, or rarely work in the office. Companies that provide seamless products and services to tie together those distributed workforces together, allowing them to collaborate and communicate via web and mobile platforms, will have a lot of market to run with.
—-
Source = http://fcw.com/blogs/john-klossner/2011/01/john-klossner-federal-telework-policy.aspx

In reading about this year’s resolution one item in particular caught my attention — “Currently, 102,900 of the 1.9 million federal employees regularly work remotely. Of the total workforce, 62 percent are eligible to telework. To encourage the practice, the Obama administration has set a goal of having 150,000 government employees teleworking on a regular basis by 2011.”

—-

Source = http://gcn.com/Articles/2010/11/01/Telework-NMCI-Access.aspx?Page=2

The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Software Protection Initiative has produced Lightweight Portable Security, a tool created in-house that essentially creates trusted endpoints for remote access. It is a bootable CD developed with open-source software that works with most Windows, Mac or Linux computers to create a nonpersistent trusted node for secure Web browsing, cloud computing or network access. It boots a Linux operating system from a LiveCD and installs nothing on the client computer, running only in RAM to bypass local malware and leave no record of the session.

The LPS-Public edition is small, with a 124M image that can fit on a mini-CD. It is available to government and public users as a free download and is intended to be used for casual telework and on untrusted systems needed for sensitive tasks. It also can be used to access CAC-enabled websites. The government-specific LPS-Remote Access creates a virtual government-furnished equipment node on a private computer and is available for all federal agencies and contractors. It was developed in 2009 to provide a telework tool for continuity of operations in anticipation of a possible flu pandemic.

Approved by DOD’s CIO in December 2009 for continuity of operations, LPS-Remote Access has since been adopted by more than 30 DOD organizations with more than 58,000 employees. More than 35,500 copies of LPS-Public have been downloaded from the Software Protection Initiative website since 2008.

A far cheaper, more portable, and more secure solution is SPI’s Lightweight Portable Security – Government Remote Access Edition (LPS-Remote Access). With only a CD and smartcard reader, you can have your enterprise or NIPRNet desktop appear on almost any computer in the world. Its accredited and usually free. See spi.dod.mil.
—-
- Primary resistance is from managers Source = http://gcn.com/articles/2010/11/01/telework-technology.aspx
However, security doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. Virtual private networks, network access controls and virtualization, which can separate data from the hardware using it, can provide adequate security. “The technology is mature at this point, but it is still relatively recent,” Quillin said.

USPTO is one of the pioneers. The agency has been promoting telework for 10 years, and as of Sept. 30, 5,654 of its employees regularly worked outside the office. Speaking at a recent conference hosted by the Telework Exchange, Turk said 75 percent of the agency’s workforce is eligible to telework, and 80 percent of those eligible employees are doing it.

To ensure security, teleworkers use remote desktop connections and save their work in USPTO’s data center rather than on their laptops.

“There should be nothing from work on the laptop they use,” Turk said. The laptops also are encrypted so that any information on them is inaccessible. “It’s a defense-in-depth process. Our risk from loss of a laptop is small.”

“Security was a big deal for us” because of the sensitive personal information that the agency maintains. “But it turned out that there was better security on the laptops than anything we could have gotten on the desktops.”

The Dell laptops that CMS uses have webcams built for videoconferencing, in addition to VPN clients, hard-drive encryption and support for two-factor authentication, including the government’s Personal Identity Verification card.

—-
Source = http://www.teleworkexchange.com/teleworker-12-10.asp
Today’s workplace, Berry noted, has changed and the Federal government must change with it by adopting more results-focused management and telework. “In example after example, it leads to happier, more productive employees,” he said. “And organizations that are slow to adapt will miss out on being able to recruit from among the best and the brightest.”

‘Why aren’t you teleworking?’” she told the audience. “I would rather hear about the obstacles that we need to remove, rather than all the justifications for why somebody should (telework).”

The agency is considering a boost to the number of days that most employees can telework. “We really are beginning to understand that it isn’t just a one-day-a-week thing that makes the benefit,” Johnson said.

A GSA pilot program in Kansas City seems to bear out that theory, she said. The program involves 42 colleagues from the same office and 66 percent of them now work from home five days a week. In just a few months, 77 percent of participants reported significant productivity increases, and absenteeism was down 69 percent.

The program also offers some initial lessons about how co-workers can remain connected with colleagues even while working remotely. Those who telework as a group seem to pay better attention to keeping in touch, Johnson said.

—-
Source = http://www.teleworkexchange.com/teleworker-05-07.asp#p3a

“My message to managers is to try a center for one day. See how productive you can be. Let others try telework, and watch what happens to productivity and morale. It is a real eye opener.”

—-

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 31 posts. There was 1 picture uploaded, taking a total of 119kb.

The busiest day of the year was March 24th with 82 views. The most popular post that day was Picasa and Gallery play nice?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were andrewmcafee.org, twitter.com, en.wordpress.com, google.com, and statistics.bestproceed.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for disadvantages to maintaining proprietary code, ramifications of software piracy, and how prevalent are social engineering schemes such as phishing.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Picasa and Gallery play nice? December 2009

Software Piracy October 2008
1 comment

Open – Source Pros and Cons October 2008
3 comments

Forming Personal Networks or Communities Of Interest (COI) September 2009
2 comments

What’s in a URL? October 2008

2) Save as an AVI file from within Camstudio.

3) After capturing the screensession, open the file with Anyvideoconverter and save as an mp4 file.

4) Open with AVIdemux for editing and save as mp4.

(The Anyvideoconverter and AVIdemux sofware steps 3-4 can now be replaced with Freemake Video Converter  Which can do the conversion and is a nice editor.)

In a little more detail, (thanks Karen),

On a computer, open the software tool called CamStudio. This tool allows the user to take a screen capture an estimated thirty frames per second and also captures audio.
Open the software that is going to be demonstrated or open the target software, such as Microsoft Excel 2007 or Microsoft Word 2007

In CamStudio, configure the settings for optimal capture of the software activities, as in this particular case, the steps in how to use Microsoft Excel 2007 or Microsoft Word 2007.

After the optimization, start the recording and begin the software demonstration. (As a side note, if a mistake is made, do not stop recording. Pause yourself and take a deep breath.

Gather your thoughts and start again at a point just before you made the mistake.

When the demonstration is complete, press the stop button in CamStudio to stop the recording.

Save the file as it is as an AVI file.

Convert the AVI file into a manageable file size by using another software tool named “Any Video Converter” to convert the AVI file into a MP4 file. This conversion can reduce the file size by ten to twenty times its size.

After the conversion, open the MP4 file with another software tool named Avidemux, for editing.

Edit out any mistakes made in the recording and save the file as a MP4 file.

Close the MP4 file and open the canned introduction recording.

Append the recent software demonstration recording to the introduction recording.

Append the canned closing to the software demonstration recording.

Save the now merged three parts of the recording, (introduction, demonstration, closing) as one MP4 file.

Distribute the learning video to the appropriate site for others to view.

You must know-
How to use and configure CamStudio, “Any Video Converter”, and Avidemux
Have the knowledge on audio and video codec’s to properly configure the three software tools mentioned above.
Know the software activity or activities that are going to be demonstrated.

—-

If you want the exact settings I  use look here:  http://gstrzok.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/my-screencasti…s-and-software/

Cheers.

I would rather approach process improvement from a topical approach where so called lanes in the road are not the driving factor in determining participation. Only that you have people with expertise that you can allocate toward a well defined requirement. Then they work individually toward becoming more effective with the tools they have access too, and the process improvement is in how we enable them and what we enable them with.

What say you?

To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. I am frankly disturbed with the current demonstrated lack of desire (not ability) for government agencies to truly collaborate on articles and issues regarding our national interests.

Family, friends, and fellow taxpayers deserve better from the Intelligence Community (IC) and government agencies that are sworn to guide and protect our great nation. Taxpayers pay taxes every year with the idea that the money they give to the government will be spent on programs that have well defined requirements, have little waste, and are realistic in scope and timeliness.

Watching the news we see glimpses of failures to recognize key information that was available across the various government agencies or agency databases that may have allowed a given atrocity to have been avoided. This followed by finger pointing and general denial of responsibility when something happens. I see databases at individual agencies that are created using government funds and then treated like they somehow belong to that agency. Rather then storing that information centrally where it can be searched, mashed, and relationships can be formed, they sit on servers within disparate agencies with the hope that access to those data can be logged and metrics can be made on how useful that database or information is so that a business case for its continued use can be justified. This of course inherently reduces its usefulness and timeliness and the ability for computer systems (that don’t sleep) to find relationships in mountains of data. Do agencies own their databases? Or did taxpayer dollars pay for them with the idea that they would be shared and used by all in an effort to protect our nation?

So put those mountains of data, (databases) in a central location where computers can apply artificial intelligence and pattern recognition on all of that data simultaneously and alert analysts to relationships that are found or that may exist with flags that denote a need for a given analyst to be granted access in order to find out the details of that relationship.

By moving the data into a shared environment, we can allow computers to find relationships and share those relationships and relevancy with the analysts that are interested in that information. We won’t have to rely on humans to detect it, and share it. You see, the sharing part of this is where I believe we are coming up short.

So why is it that sharing is so difficult within these communities? Well there are several reasons.

Policies – that state which organizations can share what with others, and also define the protection of databases and information.

History – of keeping secrets in the case of of the intelligence community. A long history of doing our best to keep secrets and protect databases of information under terms like “national security”, or “need to know”. These ideas served us well, but are they actually working? I would argue that they are not as effective as we may imagine, and that we may want to start to outpace our adversaries rather then spend so much time and effort trying to protect every bit of information so zealously. That is an entire debate that deserves another post all together.

Culture – where the people that know information seem to have more value and bring more value to an organization. Knowledge is power, and your pay is based on what you know and what you bring to the table. Rather then what you know and how you share it in ways that others can benefit from it. This continues to be a problem, fueled with a pay for performance system that (if done incorrectly) could lead to ever tighter lips when it comes to sharing.

In short, we will have to address the policies, historical vs current sharing ideology, and the culture of perceived value in knowledge sharing vs knowledge hording and the value that either idea brings to an organization.

Once we have the culture of appropriate sharing, shared situational awareness on items of interest within a community of interest, and technology supporting the sharing the awareness across unified data stores then we may see a more realistic environment for stopping future attempts at causing the US harm.

Another area ripe for improvement is where do we write about the things we know and understand?

Currently, each agency has its own process for vetting and releasing reports or products that get some sort of seal of approval (which just means it completed a vetting process that can be as shallow as one person deep). They also each have a production group, or division of folks that move these products through a process, then publish them to some server (again, may or may not be seachable or indexed). By the time the information has gone through the process, the information may be a little old, or been overcome by events. This group and process is intended to bring a sense of authority to the documents, and once the document or information has the command seal added, it is available to the rest of the consumers to apply to their problem set. These reports are now something that can be referenced and in some cases, only these documents can be used or referenced for making decisions with regard to acquisition. This is another area where we need to take a good look at policy and see if there is room for a joint product, not just agency products that can get a seal of approval.

The idea that the smartest people on any given topic exist in one building is just not realistic. acquisition communities should be able to find joint products that reflect what communities of interest have to say about the topic at hand. They should not have to be bound to one agencies opinion, but able to use the opinion of the members across the community that work that issue. Simply put, if I offered you a report by one agency that has 4 people that looked it over and contributed to it, and one that an entire community worked on collaboratively to create, which one would you choose?

So the question always comes up on the vetting process for these collaborative documents. What rigor is there? What process? How can the consumer know that a given product has any more or fewer errors then a product created by a single agency and put through their process? Put another way, how can we know that a product that had 15 contributors from across the community and was read by many more as it was being created is any more accurate for making decisions then one that is created by 4 people at a single agency that goes through that agencies process?

Bottom line, we need to demand that our Intelligence Community act more like a community than a group of competing agencies, and empower those that are trying to change the culture of collaboration and analysis from agency specific to that of one IC supporting decision makers. Not 16 agencies trying to tell their own version of the story. Huge change has to take place, and it won’t happen unless the public is demanding it. Otherwise, no matter who you put in the DNI’s chair, it won’t matter because the agencies can just wait him or her out and go on with business as usual. So empower the DNI to directly impact budgets, and force documentation of actual collaboration and proven steps of change with embedded liaisons. Make intelligence production occur in a collaborative space that is open to all of the people that work that issue and have the appropriate credentials to work with that information at the lowest level possible. Take production down to the analysts level, and have it created and published in an open, accessible, collaborative forum. Build communities of interest, foster and reward superior contributions and products that have the touch of many hands and minds.

These are real, and achievable steps that we can take to move us toward a more focused and efficient Intelligence apparatus.

Constructive comments always appreciated.

– Publish information on Social Media and Collaboration. -Compose, and publish, 6 articles that highlight social media or related software tools, make suggestions that address social media use or best practices within the IC, or articulate arguments for which tools to use, when and for what reasons. – Supports CIO FY10 requirements for information sharing, knowledge management IAW http://www.doncio.navy.mil/uploads/DONCIO_Campaign_Plan_FY2010_v2_508.pdf Provide consulting on Social Media tools to the IC, departments, divisions, fleet assets and individuals on an as requested basis. Provide chat room support to A-space, Collaboration Help, Intellipublia, Compass, and Evolution IC. – Actively seek, identify, and make recommendations for business practices that may be enhanced with the use of social media tools. – Document these activities with specific customers, providing clear problems and potential solutions for lessons learned and best practices usage.

Social Media and Collaboration Training and Software implementation

– Provide a minimum of 4 courses on Social Media and Collaboration to the workforce before September 30 2010. This course shall cover at a minimum A-space, Intellipedia, Inteldocs, Blogs, Intelink, Gallery, iVideo, Microblogging, IC-Connect, Sharepoint, Tag|Connect, and Instant Messaging. – Gather course feedback and make improvements to the course. – Identify and implement software that supports IC wide collaboration and software and hardware that facilitates the movement of data from system to system for analysis.

What do you think I should be doing this year? How can these be improved? Are they Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timebound? I would be grateful for constructive criticism and ideas.

One leading agency wants to lead or direct changes across the other agencies, but has limited number of ways to motivate those agencies to change. The largest motivator may be financial incentives / or withholding, that can be offered to those commands that can prove alignment and conformance.

Most agencies are motivated by internal problems and solutions, and don’t understand the need for the certain changes that will align the entire enterprise for success. Lack of understanding and financial constraints drive decisions to local needs. There is no education or representation of the greater enterprise needs at the local command level.

Individuals within a command that have ideas that are not conformal with the commands point of view may be reluctant to press to hard for these enterprise level alignment changes for fear of reprisal in any form.

Idea on what to do.

Have at least one individual at each agency that is an embedded member from the directing agency. These members belong to the directing agency, but sit in a local command or agency.
Since they don’t belong to the local command, they can deliver the news from the directing agency without fear of retribution or getting fired.
Their performance appraisals are based on achieved changes that are documented and returned to the directing command each month.
This person is motivated to engage the local command to make the changes and advise the local command of efforts they can make in order to receive funds.
The local command is motivated to listen to the directing agencies representative because that representative recommends the funds to be sent to the agency based on the local commands efforts to align and with the directing agency.

I see this as win, win, win – because the directing agency gets influence at local commands, the local commands have someone to listen to and get direction from, while the local command representation has top cover and can deliver the news without fear of retribution.

The local reps need to be fairly senior and have personable and good communication skills.

Have any comments or thoughts on how this could be better? Do you think it could work?

As always, thanks for reading.
Your comments and constructive criticism are welcome.

This is bad because for fast, accurate, and rich content, we want the greatest number of collaborators to apply their considerable depth of knowledge to fewer products and knowledge bases which enable decision makers (political or tactical) to make the most informed decisions as quickly as possible.

Example situation:

Twenty people across the enterprise (DOD, IC, and other governmental bodies with access to the network) have expertise on a subject, but are not necessarily geographically located near one another.

From blog_pics

Twenty people (collaborators) across five companies or (agencies) that typically write on a given subject or topic. Four people at each of the five companies.

From blog_pics

Each of the five companies creates its own collaborative environment for its local employees with some limited ability to share with external collaborators. This could be a Mediawiki site, Sharepoint site, Lotus Notes, or any similar collaboration environment (Collaorative software list).

Each of the four members at each of the five companies use their companies collaborative environment to collaborate on their individual product on the same topic.

From blog_pics

Five “collaborative products” are created, with four primary contributors to each product.

A decision maker (political or tactical) may receive all five products on which to make a decision, and the burden of analysis is put on the decision maker (with less expertise on a topic) rather than on the community of practice where that expertise exists.

From blog_pics

What we want to do is put one product in front of a decision maker that represents the collaborative efforts of the community of practice on that topic (all twenty people), and allow them to make decisions based on that information. The richness and depth of knowledge applied to one document where the differences and facts are agreed upon (or highlighted when not) and available as a product and a living knowledge resource.

From blog_pics

Although there are several publishing and knowledge management products in use across the services and agencies, many of these systems are not shared, nor do they allow for collaboration outside of their component in an effective way. The data and products as well as those items in production are not discoverable by the other components and the costs to maintain each of these systems is considerable. Even if each component wanted to share their databases and information, it would be technically challenging based on the varied systems in use.

Intellipublia is authoring and knowledge management software that enables joint production of products and knowledge management on topics across the entire enterprise (where the enterprise contains all of the agencies, commands and DOD components). All of which can use Intellipublia to create component specific products, or collaborate on joint products. Additionally, members at any component can discover, and contribute or comment on any product that is in draft, or completed.

Intellipublia takes the worldwide scalability of Wikipedia (Mediawiki software) and has been modified to work as a production system that has many features of modern production expectations“.

Intellipublia is operational, as well as still accepting requirements for improvement.

The most notable features are:
* Web based and accessible from any computer on the network
* Scalable to millions of users
* Changes are tracked and attributable and commented
* Notification mechanisms for various aspects of user activities
* Produce validated XML for registration with the Library of National Intelligence IAW ICD 501
* Static html output for local server usage
* Searchable, linkable, taggable, extensible, and has RSS output

In conclusion, I wish to convey that within an enterprise as large as ours, where knowledge on any topic exists in more then one component, it is imperative that we drive collaborators to fewer collaborative spaces in order to maximize collaborative effects and achieve decision superiority while reducing duplication in both products and knowledge databases. This means making a joint decision on which environments we are going to use, followed with how we will integrate them, regardless of the environment or software tools that we settle on.

As always, thank you for reading, and I would appreciate your candid and constructive feedback.

Here is a possible example of some common rules that may help you and your group:

If you want me to do something with it now, put me in the To: line, add an importance (!) to it, and in a short paragraph, explain what you need from me with regard to the issue that follows in the email below, and when you need that decision made and back to you. You can include a desire for a phone call, or any other type of returned communication in order to meet your timeliness needs. (Remember, I may be checking my email from my phone while traveling). 

If you put my name in the CC: line, your email will go into a cc: folder by way of a “email rule” and I will not likely look at it. But if it makes you feel good, and the person on the other end of the email feels better knowing I am on the cc: line, then feel free. Do not put my name on the cc: line if you want me to read your email.

Draft your emails with purpose and brevity in mind. Tell me what you want from me, why I am involved, when you need it, how you want it, who else is involved, and what it is going to be used for.

Do not use the “reply all” feature and explain to those that do use it that those emails will likely be deleted by any of us involved.

Make sure your Subject line tells me something about the topic, and if applicable, time and importance, action or decision and dollar figure associated with that action or decision. Doing this correctly will get your email read by me, and incorrectly done will likely lead to a conversation on time management. If it is an announcement, put “Announcement” at the beginning of the Subject: and then the announcement topic.

Ask yourself if email is the appropriate tool for communicating the information at hand or the activity that is taking place. Often, there is a better tool available for the work that is being done. Examples: Is this a task? Do we have a tasking system that will handle this information more appropriately? Is this a discussion? Can anyone else benefit from the discussion? Then let’s move the discussion into a tool that handles discussions and captures that information in a place that is useful to the others involved. Allow others to subscribe to the conversation or unsubscribe based on their own desires. Some other tools to consider before email are: Chat, Blogs, Wiki entries, Document management systems, Microblogging, Social media, or Social bookmarking tools. Don’t forget the phone, it can be the right way to communicate in a lot of cases as well as the fastest way to resolve issues.

Do not attach files to your emails. Instead, put the file you want to attach in a document storage location with a URL that will allow those people you want to read it to have  access to it and be able to edit it with the permissions you have set on it. Again, no attachments, just links to the file in one location. In short, this will save money, time, and confusion since the document exists in one place and is edited by all there. See the “office rules for editing documents” write up for more on editing documents, check in, check out rules etc…

Check email three times a day. In the morning, lunch, and 30 minutes before you leave for the day. While you are checking the mail, consider using the three folders (follow up, archive,  and hold) mentioned in ”The trusted Trio“. One that you will handle immediately, one that you will put emails that need greater time and attention, and then one that holds longer term issues.  When you open your inbox, put them into one of those folders and then handle the ones that need to be or can be handled immediately.

Turn off your email when you are not doing your email. This will stop the popups, and distractions. You can stay focused on doing your tasks rather than thinking about the one that just popped in.

Don’t use email for communications that involve a lot of money or people’s livelihood or lives. It is one thing to hold a meeting or have a phone call and follow up with information in an email, but the mixture of hands on, phone calls, and emails should be a good one. If it is important, make sure you have a conversation first, then follow up with an email reminder or summary if you think it is wise.

Please share your ideas and thoughts on additional ways to control the flow of email in your work by commenting below.

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Links to email related resources:

Email Overloaded http://email-overloaded.com/

The trusted trio http://lifehacker.com/software/email/geek-to-live%E2%80%94empty-your-inbox-with-the-trusted-trio-182318.php

The inbox makeover http://www.macworld.com/article/44327/2005/04/tipsinbox.html

Inbox Zero By Merlin Mann http://lifehacker.com/282544/merlin-mann-presents-inbox-zero

As always, thanks for reading and commenting.