How Web 2.0 is changing the way we work?

Today, many of us are familiar and use Web 2.0 tools such as wikis, blogs, social networks and virtual networks. New Web 2.0 tools are evolving quickly while we are trying to get used to current applications.

Like some people businesses, schools and government are trying to find ways how to integrate thins new world into their day to day stuff. In a interview Andrew McAfee from MIT explains how web 2.0 technologies are changing the way companies do business. I think this is good article to learn more about this trend.

Source: ComputerWorld

Virtual Worlds in Business

"One of the major challenges facing businesses today is preservation, organization and distribution of information." (AHG) AHG is one of the first companies devepol training and educational opportunities of virtual worlds. They helps business address challenges of today's diverse workforce training and information management by creating immersive e-learning tools and solutions that engage employees, foster enterprise collaboration, bridge generational gap and cut time to ready.

Here is the link to company website, http://www.ahg.com/

Second Life: Is Business Ready For Virtual Worlds?

I really like this question "Second Life: Is Business Ready For Virtual Worlds?" I read about this online at Baseline Magazine. What do you think?

Virtual Worlds, Virtual Economies

Here is a good article from Businessweek on how online games can blur the line between fantasy and reality.
Castronova, associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, shares his thoughts with BusinessWeek's Silicon Valley bureau chief, Robert D. Hof about the growth of online games from the No. 1 World of Warcraft to Linden Lab's open-ended virtual world.

I totally agree with him that they became so popular in a very short time period. We hear and read everyday new imlications of virtual worlds.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982010.htm 

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New employee orientation via Second Life

Recently, some innovative companies have started to create virtual workplaces to allow their employees meet virtually, practice any kind of corporate communications, conduct training sessions in 3D learning environment, simulate business ideas, and model new products. IBM is one of the innovative companies offering new employee orientation via Second Life. Here you can read more about IBM's story.

The popularity of Second Life is growing rapidly in many fields so it's time to be hurry to catch the trend and develop successful experiences in e-learning for corporates.

iPhone Apps for Business People

How could a businessman resist a phone like iPhone?

With the iPhone business apps business people have access to Microsoft Exchange, push emails, and many other cool enterprise applications. By using iPhone SDK any enterprise can create customized applications to meet the needs of their businesses. I've got web links below to top iPhone apps for businessmen hope you like it.

http://www.resourcenation.com/blog/top-iphone-applications-for-business-professionals/

http://www.cio.com/article/525963/10_Great_iPhone_Apps_for_Business_Users_at_a_Glance

~@345

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So, what is the best measurement?

Do you have a personal blog or a blog for your company? There’s a lot of discussion about the success of blogs. Is there a certain evaluation method to measure your blogs outcome? I think yes, Avinash Kaushik in his blog has Very impressive guidelines for measuring success of your blog. I will definitely keep in mind his tips. You can read his post by clicking here.

No doubt, it is important to be active in the social media arena because it connect us with people and we learn from each other and it would be nice to measure our blogs success though.

Scientifically Designed Brain Games

Today, I came across a very interesting article about brain fitness program from Lumos Labs. The original article is on www.openeducation.net. According to the article, Lumosity is a cognitive neuroscience research and development company that builds software tools to improve brain health and performance. I got curios and checked out also http://www.lumosity.com/. Company's mission is to create innovative neuroscience-based tools that empower people to lead better lives through better brain health and performance. It is a very interesting website and through their website you can sign up for a free trial. You can read the full article here and check out the Lumos Labs here.

‘Fluent in Finance’ e-learning course.

‘Fluent in Finance’ e-learning course is designed by Enspire Learning company. Enspire Learning have been developing online training programs with interactive multimedia for a long time in the market. They mostly addresses businesses and ‘Fluent in Finance' is one of their free course that you can take it here. They have even e-learning finance module for congress members. According to the company their ‘Fluent in Finance' learning tool allows learners to apply finance concepts to real-world managerial decisions, make investment decisions, fund their strategies, and view the results in terms of financial metrics. Plus, all learners get feedback on their performance from certified real-world experts. How does it sound?

Kelley Executive Partners Virtual Campus

A short video to show how second life can be used for corporate training.

The results from my first poll

Thanks to all who participated.

A Better Way to Manage Knowledge

I just read an article from John Hagel and John Seely Brown about a better ways to manage knowledge. It was an interesting article talking about how can businesses learn to manage and create knowledge by applying methods used in online games like World of Warcraft and authors point that "the last thing the world needs is another knowledge management scheme focusing on capturing knowledge that already exists. What we need are new approaches to creating knowledge."  In the article, authors touch on a variety of other business topics such as innovation and managing people. Here’s the link to read the full article.

e-Learning by Design

A comprehensive resource from William Horton for both online industrial trainers and academic educators. I read the book reviews and it seems like a pretty impressive book.

I did a quick research about William Horton and found out that he is a leading e-learning consultant. He advises large and small companies in developing online training and information strategies.

Here is the table of contents for the book. Also if you decide to review his book before purchase click here.

Does E-Learning work for all the companies?

I've been reading recently Jay Cross's blog. He has been blogging about Inside Learning Technologies for a while. Today, I found out some excellent points of him from his oldest posts about corporate training. He says that "Corporations are flocking to eLearning for all the wrong reasons. It’s cheaper: no travel, no facilities cost, no instructor salaries." I definitely agree with him because in order to get better outcomes businesses should address the needs and identify requirements better of the organization and employees. I think time is already up to open up training departments in big corporations to mentor and support workers needs during their eLearning. Jay's post eLearning is here if you would like to read it.

My first blog entry

Hello everyone,

This is my first blog!

I set up this blog to share the latest information about the corporate training world and hopefully it will be both informative and interesting for all of us. I am eager to see what this blog turns into. In the mean time, I hope to get some feedback via comments about your ideas, experiences, etc.

To help you get to know me, here is a quick summary of my life: I am originally from Istanbul, Turkey. I have been living in the states for about eight years. Currently, I am employed as a Systems Engineer and working for my masters degree. I love SCUBA diving.

So that’s all for now, just a quick introduction, thanks again for reading my first blog entry.

Best,

-Omer