prezi – what your presentation tool could be like…

slideshows or presentations are one of the most widely form of data being presented to users. It shows set of data at a time and moves from one set to another.They are linear in behaviour. But our mind does not see information in straight way.It tries to get a whole picture of things first then see the individual parts and then fits it in the whole picture. He can move in any order between data. If it is more interested in anything he can spend more time on those things.

Current presentation methods are like a set of inormation and you have to fit them to complete the puzzle. You get answer at the end. Though most of the time you wanted answer at the begining. What would a presentation tool be like which matches how the mind sees the information. It shows you the big picture , allows you to move between them while showing the relationship between them and if you like it go to details.

came across this online presentation tool – prezi which is trying to do exactly this. It is completely different presentation tool than what we are used to till date. See it to believe it. Here are some of the presentations created using this. See one of those here. And below is a clip to show how to make prezi presentations.

one of the similar features have been tried with pptplex which is on microsot office labs. But compare the difference. the idea is similar but prezi contents are so stunning that it is next immediate thing you would want to try or atleast want to show others.

one of the theories of eLearning is that there should not be much distractions in the content. It should not be so stunning that it creates hindrance in learning. This is exactly what I felt about this. I liked it , I saw many presentations created in this later on realised that none of the time I was looking at the content. But I do remember all the visual effects it has. The editor is also high on visual appeal , sometimes I wished if there was better way to use the all purpose tool they show is their logo also – It takes so many clicks. These are the only downside I could think of…

tata nano – not just a car

just got a glimpse of the tata motor nano – the $2000 car. I am not a automobile lover but first glimpse could not stop looking at it. And thinking that a parking lot in bangalore would cost more than this car. It could have been passed as normal car or even a better one. By no standard it looks as a cheap car but the one which every one would want to have. It is just the price which makes as if every one could afford to have, though I have no such plans.

Here are some of the photos which I clicked. This is where you keep your tyres and not engines.

Engine is at back side -

And some of the ways Tata is using to keep the marketing cost down, click the image below to go to their site -

• its official site is promoting presence on forums, blogs, facebook, orkut
• there are many videos which are hosted on youtube and the website embeds them.
• it allows you to book online
• and you would not miss seeing this as it is displayed at all tata retail stores like westside, croma etc and any shopping you do at their stores allows you to fill up coupons and participate in lucky draw to win a nano.

The only downside is that it has potential to nullify the goods that electric cars are doing for future.

ribbit voice platform or flash developers

Further to my earlier post on ribbit here are summary -

Features – visit this for complete feature set – ribbit has whole set of APIs like you can create a flash application which can accept or make calls. The calls can be to actual phones or your flash application to which Ribbit assigns a number which uses your computer microphone and speaker to act as fully functional phone. Most interesting part is that depending on who is calling and other parameters like time, or any other condition you can think of in your code you can execute a programatic event. Of course it could be limited by what can be done from Flash.So things like remote controlling the content playing in class from my mobile phone could be possible. Or switch off my fridge connected to flash device by making a phone call should be possible. You can create applications that can send text messages to either your ribbit phone or any number in US. Other features are transcription services that is you can convert your voice messages to text.

Is it all free – no. But if you have developer account you can do many of the things for free. Developer account are given access to dial anywhere in US for free. I tried my hands on building a quick application using this to call someone in US and save my bills but in my first attempt could not do it. Will give it a try later on again in few days. From discussions in forums here are the limits for a developer account- 10 calls per day (US Only) – 10 minutes per call – 10 text SMS messages per day (US Only) – 10 sub-accounts – 0 voicemail transcriptions (unless requested). But going through the forums looks like even if you exceed this limit for the time being they are fine.

There are two stages of trying out ribbit – when you are building the application is when it is considered developer account and when the application goes live. The pricing comes into picture after application goes live.

Scenarios – first thought here are the scenarios I can think of for eLearning. There are nothing which cannot be done by some of the existing methods except that it brings so much fun to the learning.

• I create a eLearning course. The course has a “give me more ideas” button which is actually a ribbit appliation. Distribute it to my groups from whom I want more feedback. There could be 2 stages of my course completion – I have created a draft version and I have lot of time on my hand. In that mode if someone clicks “give me more ideas” then he would be routed to voice mail where he can leave his voice message. The transcription would come into action by converting the message to speech and sending me report at the end of day which I can incorporate into my course. Next stage is when I need the comments urgently in which case it would be a direct call to my mobile. At this stage I can incorporate their comments quickly.
• Similar situation could be I create a course and I put “answer this question” button which would accept calls from only a fixed set of numbers. This could be achieved by programatically analysing the caller ID which would be maintained in a database. Further on they could be given password to speak. If it matches then the voice is sent for transcription and I can test and rate their answers. Otherwise call is not accepted. And my application can be programed to analyse the responses also and send SMS to the course takers about whether they passed or failed. This could be very relevant scenario for mobile learning.
• Or the simplest of them is make a call or send text message to my friend using the eLearning course and have fun.

With some free talk and text time for developer accounts I would go and try out some of the features. And use Adobe Captivate 4 widget framework to create some working widgets.

twitter – the only thing getting attention

looks like twitter is the only thing that is getting attention if you are following technology trends now a days. Be it television or web suddenly everyone has started talking about it. Some report shows that 5 year students are using twitter as a way to learn maths and soon it will be part of curriculam in schools.

here is a gartner report on how enterprises are using twitter. it says “By 2011, Enterprise Microblogging Will Be a Standard Feature on 80 Percent of Social Software Platforms” and probably a way to earn money through this medium. Enterprises are using twitter in following ways - 

• Direct — The company uses Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel
• Indirect — The company’s employees use Twitter to enhance and extend their personal reputations, thereby enhancing the company’s reputation
• Internal — Employees use the platform to communicate about what they are doing, projects they are working on and ideas that occur to them
• and as inbound signalling - Twitter streams provide a rich source of information about what customers, competitors and others are saying about a company.

I have also jumped to twitter bandwagon after watching it from sidelines since almost 2 years. I use twitter to broadcast any interesting piece of news I come across internet. It is faster than blogging about it. If I can add any contribution to the news then I think about blogging it.

wordpress has also released its twitter widget today – read it here which I have added for this blog. Look at right hand side for my twitter feeds. You can add as many twitter widget as you want if you have more than one twitter page. And the links are fully functional…

software project estimation – is it an art …

there are many methods to estimate a software project. All of them contain sufficiently large literature and complex formulaes .If one has to refer  it quickly it cannot be done and even if that is done one will never get so much data as to predict it accurately and in the manner they are saying. so will it always be art.

and here is a link which explains estimating a project using “use cases”. Use cases in any form are the starting point for any project discussions. So it can also be used for creating estimates. Thought this assumes that the use cases are very detailed and lot of thought should go into many other factors as well. Every project is different which may or may not have so much data but the point is in being aware of the fact that use case alongwith few factors can help in estimating effort for a project. And the actual data can be arrived using whatever information is available for a project.

ps – i am using presentation from slideshare in this post. They have just released mobile version of slideshare. Read it here. And it looks like this product was developed during Yahoo Open hack day in bangalore. Read it here.

use google maps in your adobe captivate projects…

there are many eLearning projects with addresses and contact information. How would that look if we can insert a live map which will show a note about the address , can show directions to reach and user can pan,zoom and use it as he would do in any online map services and all within the Captivate project. No need to go to the browser and break the flow of users.

in this post we will go through some of the resources to use Adobe Flash CS4 to create a swf file which can be used inside adobe captivate projects. We will use Google maps Api to achieve this.

1. Set up your development environment in Flash CS4. Read the whole process here.
2. Sign up for google map API here. You will get a unique API key. You will need to specify a website or domain where you will be using it. You can give the link to your blogs also. Refer to step 10 as to how to use it.
3. go through this post to create a simple application here. Note – The path for componets in Flash CS4 is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash CS4\Common\Configuration\Components
4. Now we will create a swf file which will display the map of washington and show a overlay over that.
5. Open Flash CS4. Create a Action Script 3.0 project
6. During step number 1 you have copied maps swc file to Flash directory. If you have done it correctly than inside components window you can see and entry for “Google>GoogleMapsLibrary”. Drag drop it to stage. Dont worry about the position.
7. The code is attached at the end of post for reference. Just copy the code to actionscript window and publish the project as swf file.
8. In the begining of code we have use few import statements so that we can use the corresponding APIs.
9. We will declare the map object - var map:Map = new Map();
10. We will need to use the API key we generated in step 2. - map.key = “put the api key here“;
11. Set the size of map - map.setSize(new Point(500, 400));
12. add a event listener - map.addEventListener(MapEvent.MAP_READY, onMapReady);
13. set the map area to the location you want to show – map.setCenter(new LatLng(38.8977, -77.0366), 14, MapType.NORMAL_MAP_TYPE); – Important thing are lattitude(38.8977) and longitude(-77.0366) – how should you find the one for your location – there are 3 ways – you know it already, use google geocoding apis  or use this page to find the one for your location. Behind the scenes it is using google map apis to do this.
14. Play with replacing MapType.NORMAL_MAP_TYPE - Other values they can take are SATELLITE_MAP_TYPE, HYBRID_MAP_TYPE, and PHYSICAL_MAP_TYPE. SATELLITE_MAP_TYPE is the one you can use to get google earth type of map.
15. Next we will create a marker and add it over the map. It will show your position on map
16. Below is the action script code . Put it in your action script window and you are ready to go.

import com.google.maps.LatLng;

import com.google.maps.Map;

import com.google.maps.MapEvent;

import com.google.maps.MapType;

import com.google.maps.overlays.Marker;

import com.google.maps.overlays.MarkerOptions;

import com.google.maps.MapType;

import com.google.maps.LatLng;

import com.google.maps.styles.FillStyle;

import com.google.maps.styles.StrokeStyle;

//create a map object

var map:Map = new Map();

//specify the API key

map.key = “replace with your API key“;

//set the size of map

map.setSize(new Point(500, 400));

//add event listeners

map.addEventListener(MapEvent.MAP_READY, onMapReady);

this.addChild(map);

function onMapReady(event:Event):void {

//center the map to the lat, long

map.setCenter(new LatLng(38.8977, -77.0366), 14, MapType.NORMAL_MAP_TYPE);

//create a marker

         var markerA:Marker = new Marker(

             new LatLng(38.8977, -77.0366),

             new MarkerOptions({

                 strokeStyle: new StrokeStyle({color: 0×987654}),

                 fillStyle: new FillStyle({color: 0×223344, alpha: 1}),

                 radius: 15,

                 hasShadow: true

             })

         );

//add the marker to the map

map.addOverlay(markerA);

}

Publish it as swf and insert it to your Captivate project. Note – This is action script 3.0 swf so you can use it in Latest version of Adobe Captivate that is 4 . Publish the Captivate project. You have a fully functional map showing the location you provided. You can pan , go to any place in world . Find the directions etc. 

Keep an eye here for the future post to understand how widget feature of Adobe Captivate 4 gives a better solution than this. And use the endless capabilities of Google Maps service.

Update  - read this post to see how the google map widgets were created and download the file to be used with Adobe Captivate 4.

adobe captivate 4, learning 2.0 and the perpetual beta …..

while browsing the net for using various webservices like youtube,flickr,google maps etc and thinking how they are being used in eLearning world I chanced upon this ebook. I was late to notice this but still. The concept is called “e learning 2.0” and is explained as use of web technologies in education. This term is extension of more famous term web 2.0.

I am also thinking of how a eLearning tool like Adobe Captivate 4 can help in this phenomenon. You have already seen how youtube videos can be inserted in adobe captivate 4 slides. That was just the glimpse. More advanced things can be done like posting the comment, adding the rating, complains etc depending on how much they open for Flash. Similarly there could be ways to use flickr which is a photoshare service. Learning 2.0 also mentions it quite frequently but I am yet to find a broad use case in which a tool can help in creating content using Flickr. Ofcourse showing a set of photographs with predefined search string is the easiest of them but I am not sure if it will be used or practical courses. May be it is my ignorance of service which I have just began to use or may be the informal nature of these services. There are some interesting things which can be done with google maps which I will share shortly.

And this also reminds me one of the favourite terms of web 2.0 – perpetual beta which is a system in which a product never leaves development stage of beta and allows developers to consistently release new features which might not be fully tested. You see this trend in the “beta” logo which comes with many web 2.0 services. This also says users must be treated as co developers and they add to the product feature set also. Which again leaves me with thought that the features will never stop coming even after Adobe Captivate 4 is released and the users can be part of it also by developing such services on the tool. This is one of the contribution of Adobe Captivate to web 2.0 phenomenon.

how much of Adobe Captivate you know …

was pleasently surprised to find that Adobe Captivate certification is now available under Adobe Certified Expert(ACE).

Here are some of the sample questions to understand the pattern – taken from here

1. Given a scenario, select the appropriate options for software simulation.
   You want users to watch and learn a set of actions required to perform a task in an application.
   You will NOT need interactivity.
   Which option for recording mode should you select?
   A. Assessment Simulation
   B. Demonstration
   C. Training Simulation
   D. Full Motion Recording
   Correct answer: B
2. Create a text caption by setting the appropriate text caption properties.
   You want the height of a text caption to automatically adjust when you adjust the pixel width
   of the text caption. You click the Size and Position tab in the Text Caption dialog box.
   What should you do?
   A. Enter the number of pixels from the left and from the top
   B. Select Constrain proportions.
   C. Enter the size for width in pixels.
   D. Enter the size for height in pixels.
   Correct answer: B
3. Manage objects on the timeline.
   You want to control the preview of how timeline objects on a slide appear or disappear. What
   should you do?
   A. Drag the playhead left or right across the Timeline
   B. Grab an object in the Timeline and drag it right or left
   C. Preview the next 5 slides
   D. Choose Preview > Project
   Correct answer: A
4. Select the appropriate properties for rollover captions.
   You want to enter some text and have it appear when a user passes their mouse over an area on
   the slide. Which object should you insert?
   A. rollover slidelet
   B. rollover caption
   C. rollover image
   D. click box
   Correct answer: B
5. Select the appropriate properties for a button.
   Which can be used as an alternative to requiring a mouse click and attached to a button?
   A. A rollover caption.
   B. A slidelet.
   C. A shortcut key.
   D. A zoom area.
   Correct answer: C
6. Select the appropriate options and import Flash video into a slide.
   You have placed a FLV file into a slide and set the display for property to rest of slide. You want
   the slide to move to the next slide only after the Flash video completes playing. What setting
   should choose?
   A. set the appear after properties
   B. change the display for property to rest of project
   C. set timing to no transition
   D. pause slide till end of video
   Correct answer: D
7. List and describe the options related to recording audio.
   What happens to an audio file when you increase the value for Encoding Speed in the Audio
   Settings dialog box?
   A. The quality of the encoded file is raised.
   B. The quality of the encoded file is flattened.
   C. The encoded file is converted from a WAV file to an MP3 file.
   D. The quality of the encoded file is lowered.
   Correct answer: D
8. Select the appropriate options and configure a Playback control.
   Which must be added to deliver a movie that is Section 508 compliant and accessible?
   A. A.A progress bar to the playback control.
   B. B.A mute button to the playback control.
   C. C.A Closed Captioning button must be added to the playback control.
   D. D.A forward and back button must be added to the playback control.
   Correct answer: C
9. Given a scenario, select the appropriate publishing options from the Publish dialog box.
   Which type of document or file is created when you publish your Captivate project as a Storyboard?
   A. Adobe Connect
   B. Microsoft Word
   C. an executable
   D. (EXE)
   E. Flash (SWF)
   Correct answer: B
10. Given a scenario, select the appropriate quiz reporting preferences.
    You are NOT using an LMS. How can you receive quiz reports from your users?
    A. Select E-mail from the LMS area of Quiz Preferences.
    B. Set the Reporting Level to Interactions and score.
    C. Publish the Quiz results as a Word document.
    D. Set the Choose report data to Quiz results only.
    Correct answer: A

blog hits …

one of the addons about maintaining a blog on wordpress is that it give some idea about the users who are coming to this blog. Most of them come through search engines - 

here are some of the terms people use, in order of usage -

• “adobe captivate” – general term. Probably used by people who are first timers to Adobe captivate. This has the highest count for exact term. Probably tells that there are many people buying captivate for the first time.
• “captivate file size” – people frustrated by the file size of the captivate contents, and are trying to find way to reduce size. Similar terms are “reduce swf size” , “reducing swf size in captivate” and other combinations. This forms highest count for the category.
• “full motion slide” , “crack captivate 3″ etc.

Most interesting of them is “adobe captivate logo” , “adobe captivate icon” – This also accounts for fairly large no of usage. But could not understand the reason of this string. Are they looking for replacing captivate icon from their swf or from standalone generated by captivate – not sure.

San Jose Semaphore @adobe…

in computer science semaphores are constructs which are used to protect access to shared resources. Few centuries back Semaphores had a very different meaning. They were knows as optical telegraphs and were used to trasfer information by means of visual signals. Think of it as a series of relay towers each within visible range and operators conveying information using visual signals such as flags , mechanical arms with different position representing different things.Early messages would pass through 15 stations in 9 minutes, and speed varied with weather, and obviously it all would happen only from dawn to dusk. It was all before electric telegraphs which when introduces had to face resistance from it on the ground that any one can break the system by cutting the wire. Optical method regained its ground with the introduction of optical fibres which are backbone of todays communication infrastructure.

last year adobe has installed a semaphore atop its Almaden Tower which transmits a coded message.From SanJoseSemaphore – “When the Semaphore was launched on August 7, 2006, the challenge of decoding of its message was put to the public.  On August 14, 2007, the solution was announced, and the winning code-breaking team of Mark Snesrud and Bob Mayo was honored for being the first (and only) team to break the code. The solution:  For the past year, the San Jose semaphore has been broadcasting the full text of Thomas Pynchon’s 1966 novel, The Crying of Lot 49.”

read the complete analysis of the solution here, and how much pain the winning team took to crack it here. and here are other projects of the artist who created the semaphore.