Can Big Data + Analytics + Community of Practice + Virtual World = Collaboration for Key Decision Making

April 27, 2013 1 Comment

I know, not a very catchy title, but for now it will do!

For quite some time I’ve been promoting the concept of integrating Communities of Practice with a Virtual World to allow large organisations to bring staff together in one information portal that fosters collaborative working and lifelong learning.

Collegues collaboratively creating an excel forumla within a virtual world

Colleagues collaboratively creating an excel formula within a virtual world

Whilst doing so I’ve noticed that many virtual world technology companies (such as VastPark and SnapGroove) are moving into data visualisation as part of their main offering. They see that once you have an engaged an audience brainstorming within a virtual world, increasingly that audience will want to view it’s own big data and analytics, whilst collaboratively making key decisions or tinkering with their formula for making those key decisions.

To that end I wanted to find out more about the way research staff work and was kindly allowed to attend a group meeting of the Operation Research (OR) Society. Dr Stephen Lorrimer, the Head of Analytical Services for the NHS discussed the importance of OR whilst David Gilding from Nottinghamshire NHS discussed some sample case projects done recently. What was noticeable about the people attending was that they made an outsider interested in finding out more very welcome and I’d like to thank both James Crosbie and Jane Parkin for taking care of me.

Community of Practice portals can be seamlessly integrated within a virtual world

Community of Practice portals can be seamlessly integrated within a virtual world

The OR teams within the NHS did seem to be quite disparate and I thought could make use of technology in improving communication between themselves to discuss and improve each others work. I also wondered whether having a communications platform (as in the title!) could help improve QA within a group by allowing disparate researchers to interactively work together.

A VastPark virtual world displaying a large dataset

A VastPark virtual world displaying a large dataset

Jane Parkin invited me to join the OR society and I’m very keen on doing more work to see how analytical research work can be improved using communications technology such as that provided by VastPark and SnapGroove, as well as using that technology to improve links between these staff and key decision makers.

A VastPark world displaying geo-specific data set

A VastPark world displaying geo-specific data set

Filed under Collaborative virtual worlds, Research Tagged with ,

Corporate Collaborative Virtual World

April 23, 2013 Leave a comment

As part of last month’s presentation to DSTL/Qinetiq we hosted a small virtual world for attendee’s to see how collaboration and communication could work.

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The virtual world was based around version 2 of VastPark’s software platform although soon we’re hoping to get our hands on version 3 later this year which will:

  • offer a HTML5 player for users to log into a virtual world whilst they are using a tablet/smartphone
  • update it’s core virtual world player to use the Unity3D rendering engine allowing for greater visual quality
  • bring full integration with the company’s social media offering so that companies can have social media and a virtual world presence from one portal

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Is Mobile Learning about to become, well, simply just Learning

April 22, 2013 Leave a comment

Over the last few years, everyone and his dog has been writing, researching and presenting their ideas on how everyone should incorporate a mobile learning strategy into their curriculum.

Obviously we are all sold on the need to move to HTML5, but the argument starts after that. The current hard sell doing the circuits is that we place our faith in a responsive style of design and development (Responsive Elearning Design) whereby we use an authoring tool that allows us to develop content that downgrades itself to match the device you are using. The key drivers for the philosophy has been that mobile students:

  • don’t have the bandwidth to download desktop based learning
  • don’t have the screen real estate to view desktop based learning
  • don’t want to view a huge 2 hour desktop course, only small chunks at convenient times
  • can’t view desktop courses on a small smartphone screen.

The problem with this approach is that everyone of the above factors has already been overcome. Yes, not in full circulation, but they have been overcome:

  • people are starting the slow adoption of 4G that will make their mobile phone access quicker than my current village broadband!
  • there are now a trickle of HD smartphones on the market. These phones have a higher screen resolution than the Logica laptop you are using to view this blog right now!
  • open source learning management systems such as Moodle are now organised in a way that they promote the creation of courses by using a series of small modular chunks of learning.
  • Screens on upmarket smartphones are slowly getting larger.

True, the above factors could still take 18 months to fully come mainstream – but in my view it won’t be long before our teenagers are all surfing the web on HD smartphones using 4G.

Simply, now, with a Moodle server and a copy of the latest Adobe Captivate, one can create multi-device learning without the need for any huge change in development.

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Networking Drone Data

April 13, 2013 1 Comment

I noticed with some puzzlement Eric Schmidt, Head of Google, calling for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.

Like most cynacists I then got to thinking how could such new technology harm the established data magnets.

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My first thought was that if drones could share land and road data, with local enthusiasts being able to pin-point accident blackspots long before established providers could. The potential for this type of super up to date data could harm companies such as Google who provide a more traditional mapping function. Not to mention that using drones could produce a much more up to date Street View function.

I then saw a riveting article regarding the possibility the file-sharing drones and an announcement from Pirate Bay that in future parts of its site could be hosted on GPS controlled drones. In this way, they could provide a completely unrestricted “airborne Pirate Bay”.

I wondered if other people viewed drone technology as divisive or ultimately a technology for improved change.

Filed under General, Research Tagged with , ,

Providing the learning platform for every school in a country!

April 12, 2013 Leave a comment

It’s always an eye opener when a company from your home town receives some quite amazing recognition.

Frog, based in Halifax, provide learning systems and are currently delivering on a contract to provide every one of the Malaysia’s 10,000 state schools and 10 million students with access to Frog’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – a fully featured learning platform.

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In recognition of this they have been shortlisted for the prestigous ComputerWorld award, a 25 year old US-based honors program celebrating companies making an impact in the welfare of society using ICT.

If you’d like know more go to their site http://www.frogtrade.com their drag and drop interface for creating everything – learning platform, content, student views etc etc is very interesting and the platform seems to be multi-tenancy too.

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