Coffee on the Keyboard

Does the Web Hate School?

Full Disclosure: I am employed at Michigan State University’s College of Education as a web designer and application developer. The opinions I express on this blog are mine, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers or clients. Particularly this post.

Education generally falls behind every other sector in computer technology integration and internet use. A typical fast food employee uses a computer more during the day than a typical middle school student. (What are cash registers but custom computers?) At almost any business you can expect employees to use networked computers from everything to sales and inventory to customer service to internal work and communication.

But beyond simply using the box, private companies in every sector generally have up-to-date, professionally designed web sites that (at least try to) provide usefully information or services to customers. Been to your or your kid’s school web site lately? Universities are usually “OK,” but they get worse as you go down.

In any other sector, you are likely to find online collaboration tools, meeting planners, digital resources for employees, use of messaging tools like internal e-mail (Exchange servers), private IM, Yammer/Laconi.ca, internal wikis, public and private blogs… you get the idea.

But not in education.

Education is part of the problem, but it is not the whole problem. Many people talk about how teachers and schools fail to use computers and the internet well in their classrooms. Many schools treat the computer itself as a goal, rather than as a tool to do new things, or do old things better and faster. Teachers generally fall behind the private sector in computer literacy. Yes, all these things are true.

But we, we the tech sector, the web 2.7.4 crowd, we are part of the problem, too.

How often does a new tool support education? Offer suggestions or support for teachers? Provide educational pricing? Provide the EULA and Privacy Policy education legally requires?

The people who become teachers are often the people who did well in school, who see no reason to change anything because, to them, it works. In the tech world, “where did they drop out of school?” is a legitimate question. Your typical programmer has at least one degree in Computer Science, but the real success stories—Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg—the ones who made real money, are drop outs. School didn’t work for them—for us—so what do we owe school?

When Yammer launched, they gave a simple business plan: for companies that wanted to “claim” and control their networks, they would charge $1 per month per user. A small start up might pay $5 to $20 a month. Even a big company is probably paying only a few hundred dollars per month. A university, on the other hand, could be stuck paying tens of thousands of dollars per month, or skipping the service entirely. Which do you think they’re likely to do?

What was Yammer’s response? “Our product [...] is not geared toward educational institution [sic].”

Many schools have prohibitions against using Google services for anything work-related because, if you don’t pay for their educational services, their Terms of Use (read Section 11) could allow them to share sensitive student data.

You’re a school? You don’t matter. Only cool people matter.

Let’s change. Let’s remember that the community of “tech-savvy” users, while growing, is still a minority. Let’s encourage teachers and schools to use the tools we create, so people come out of school ready to use these tools.

It is possible. Ning is experimenting with education. But how do we make tools ed-friendly?

Fix your EULA and Privacy Policy, or provide a second one for education. Don’t be the next Google Chrome. (Frankly, everyone should be reconsidering their EULA right now. Why do some people need so many rights to my content?)

Offer suggestions to teachers. I know: it’s not really a priority. You’ve got bug fixing, paying customers, searching for VC, coming out with the next version. But it’s not terribly difficult. Got a user forum? Add a section for education. Got a wiki? Add an education page. Blog? Throw up a post for teachers once in a while, or better, get guest posts from teachers who use your tool.

Provide educational pricing. Schools have less money every year. If you can work out a deal to make your product free to schools, do it. But it’s not hard: just charge schools less. Think of this as an investment. If they use your product as students, they may well want to use it when they graduate and have to pay.

Or, provide an ad-free version to schools. This is the Ning method. If your business model doesn’t involve charging directly, be aware that schools often take issue with displaying ads to students. It’s the same investment as above: hook them young.

Schools lag on the internet because there is resistance on both sides: educators are reluctant to integrate new things into their curricula, and the new tools rarely give a damn about schools and students as users.

Changing the tech side won’t solve the problem. Schools need to adapt, too. (Where would you look for a Windows 95 computer if you needed one today? I’d check the local elementary school. It’s probably in a lab, or hidden in the back of a classroom.) Schools need to treat computers like tools, and the internet as a tool, and the tools we build on the internet as tools, and use those tools effectively. That will take time.

In the meantime, let’s try to reduce the resistance on our side, so when they come around, educators feel welcome.

Tags: classrooms, schools, teachers, tools
Posted in Education, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Identity 2.0 - A Primer

Google your name. Right now. I’ll wait.

Good. What came up?

Look at the first page of results and ask yourself these questions about each one:

1. Is it really me?
2. Did I create this?
3. Do I control this?

You need to be able to say “yes” to all of these for at least the top two or three results. (As I write this, the RSSmeme page repeating my Google Reader shared items has crawled above my blog, and I’m upset about it.)

Creating Identity

I’m lucky. My last name is very rare, so even if you Google just “Socol” I come in second—only to my father, and ahead of Wikipedia. You may not be so lucky, saddled with a name like Jones or Smith or, even worse, you might have the same name as a celebrity. You may have an uphill battle.

People with common names need to get creative. It can be as simple as adding an initial—my friend became Alec R. Johnston to distinguish himself. Something a little more creative—Lisa Bettany named her blog Mostly Lisa. Or you can geek out, like Ben Lew, who uses the name n0s0ap. (Those are zeros.)

Ben uses the name n0s0ap on del.icio.us, flickr, Last.fm, Digg, Twitter, etc. Lisa uses a combination of “MostlyLisa” and “LisaBettany.” I use a combination of an old name, “UrbaneExistance” (I know it’s spelled wrong) and “JamesSocol” for all new registrations.

But all of us, Alec, Ben, Lisa, and I, make sure our real names are linked to our identities. It’s no Clark Kent: n0s0ap is Ben Lew, with the glasses on or off.

Owning Identity

Do you own your own domain name? Why not? Go buy it. Now. Go!

I have this conversation with friends all the time. Would you want someone signing your name on paper documents? Of course not, so why would you let them do the same thing online? I own jamessocol.com, jamessocol.net, and jamessocol.org, just so no one else does. Even if you do nothing but have it redirect to your social network of choice, you should own your name.

If your name is taken, reread the last section and get creative.

Now, about those social networks. You don’t need to be on every one, but get on a few, build a profile, and put your name on it. You can create and control your own Facebook and MySpace pages without knowing a single HTML tag. Once you’ve got a name, whether it’s your real name or something else, use it. last.fm/user/you. twitter.com/you.

Controlling Identity

The best way I’ve found to control what the web knows about you is to start your own propaganda campaign. Put your name on a lot of things, preferably with links back to your own site.

An easy way to start is by commenting. Blog comments help the most, since you spread that influence around the whole internet, but within MySpace or Facebook posting real, meaningful, interesting comments on profiles and walls will make sure people think of you when they hear your name.

If you have the time, try blogging. There are a lot of blogs with great advice, but you can always just “write what you know.” Once you find your voice, the writing flows.

What else? It depends what you like. If you take pictures, get a Flickr stream. Last.fm is a great way to share and find music you like. GoodReads is a similar site for books. Twitter is great for finding people with similar interests and building connections. LinkedIn is a professional social network, particularly good for people in marketing or new media. Blogger, while not the best blogging platform, has some good community features. There is a lot out there.

Be Yourself

Don’t let someone else be you! Own your own identity and be proud of it. It will help you build authority and when a potential employer or client googles you, they’ll get a good idea about you from the first page of results.

What else, 2.0-savvy readers? What did I forget?

Tags: 2.0, authority, identity, social messaging, twitter
Posted in How To, Life, Social Networking, Web 2.0

New Twitter Name

To all my Twitter followers, and those not yet following me:

Twitter lets you change your user name, so I did. Instead of the very long and misspelled “urbaneexistance,” I am now @jamessocol.

Shorter, easier to remember, more meaningful.

If you were following me, Twitter says you still should be, no worries. This is one 2.0-mistake I can correct easily.

Tags: identity, twitter
Posted in My Site, Social Networking, Web 2.0

Expertise and Authority 2.0

Jeff Atwood is a self-proclaimed amateur:

“It troubles me greatly to hear that people see me as an expert or an authority, and not a fellow amateur.”

“There is absolutely no reason any of you should listen to me.

But somehow, I have 75,000 RSS subscribers and over 50,000 page views/day.”

Assuming a moderate amount of overlap, there are probably 100,000 people reading and listening to Jeff every day. If you had 100,000 people listening to him speaking out a window, you’d call it a successful rally.

I don’t really think Jeff Atwood is an Italian dictator.

Jeff is, however, an authority. When Jeff gives advice like “Don’t Go Dark,” thousands of people are likely to follow that advice.

Wikipedia has been the biggest source of contention on what makes an “expert” or “authority.” Does someone with 10,000 edits have more say than someone with a PhD? If the article is about medicine, probably not, but if it’s about social networking or wikis, experience and research can both bring value.

Technorati defines your “authority” as the number of blogs linking back to you in the past six months. Twitter proudly displays your number of followers. LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace all tell you how large your network is, and want you to make it bigger.

Do 9000 people follow @chrisbrogan because he’s an authority, or do people consider him an authority because he has 9000 followers?

My wishy-washy answer is, of course, “both.” Chris and Jeff Atwood both produce intelligent, well-written material and provide valuable perspectives. Chris is an experienced marketer and Jeff an experienced programmer. But consistently large audiences make both authoritative. After all, why would so many people listen if they didn’t know what they were talking about?

Humans are social animals. We’re not particularly strong, or fast, but we are very good at forming groups and working together. When we see something or someone that is valued by a large group, we attribute value to it.

Don’t believe me? Fine, then explain why Paris Hilton is famous.

Authority does not make you an expert, but expertise can help you gain authority. You get followers on Twitter by sharing good links and starting good discussions; you get readers and subscribers by producing quality content and offering something of value.

Then something happens: followers retweet you, readers send links, bloggers write about you, friends-of-friends friend you. Your audience reaches a point where it begins to grow by itself. That audience makes you more authoritative to new readers, new followers. They jump on your bandwagon. It’s the same reason you see “Best Seller” on book covers.

So is Jeff Atwood an expert? As much as anyone in his field. An authority? Definitely.

Tags: authority, expertise, technorati, twitter
Posted in Social Networking, Web 2.0

A Twitterer’s Tipping Point

Explaining Twitter to non-tweeters is still a difficult process. “It’s like Facebook status without Facebook” doesn’t do it justice—or sound very appealing. “It’s a public, non-realtime messaging system” convinces no one to sign up.

All the Twitter users I know have learned about it through word of mouth and been very confused initially. But everyone I know who joined has organically started to discover just how useful it is.

I typically see people go through three stages:

At first, users are tentative. They don’t know what to post, or why they should. They may discover some friends or family on Twitter and follow them, more out of friendly courtesy than genuine interest. Posting is slow, irregular, and primarily through the web site.

A small tipping point happens when the user starts following people they don’t know personally. Maybe a blogger or another content producer, but someone who is interesting, not just familiar. This person probably posts links, and the burgeoning tweeter may start sharing a few links of their own. They discover tools like TinyPic and s.hort.cc. Posting becomes a little more frequent and regular. They may start using a client like Twhirl, or may stick to the web.

Now they start following more and more people. Some go too fast and are flooded with noise. Most end up unfollowing at least a few users fairly quickly. I followed @nytimes for a few days before realizing they posted dozens of things I didn’t care about.

The real tipping point comes when new tweeters discover messaging. They might have used it but there is a moment when Twitter becomes more about multi-directional communication than about posting your own status. Now they’re posting frequently, having discussions, responding to questions and asking their own. They almost definitely use a client or IM (when it works).

There’s no common time frame, as far as I can see. It took me three months to hit the first tipping point, and another five to get to the next. You can see the shifts in my tweet history.

My father (@irasocol) seems to have jumped all the way stage three in less than two months.

How long did it take you? If you’ve watched people start tweeting, what kind of progression did they go through? What about you?

Tags: behavior, microblogging, tipping point, twitter
Posted in Social Networking, Web 2.0