E-Presence

Hardy Hoaxes

As everybody can ... borrow a logo from any site, it becomes equally easy for malicious mailers to send very plausible looking e-mails holding much more than the surface message. Danger lies at the end of every link. It is far from required to open easily identifiable executables! Hitting the wrong link is enough to pick up unwanted spy-ware and other things best left on the Web.

To counter persistent pretenders, today's e-mail user needs to be ever present and truly know the source!

Not just the source as in who any piece of information is from, but source as in the underlying HTML code that generates the nice looking e-mail.

Imagine your bank or eBay sending a notice that your account have been temporarily closed due to suspicion of identity theft. It looks right and the responding link does appear to point to a true eBay domain. Imagine the response asking you to click on http://support.ebay.com

(The example will take you to Symantec's frequently updated Hoax-list, not eBay's excellent Security center, which you (truly) will find here: http://pages.ebay.com/securitycenter/)

With proper visuals surrounding links it can be very convincing. Hit by the fear of identity theft such links become very tempting as one wants to set the record straight as quickly as possible. Remember: Your e-mail editor may not have the revealing statusline that may display a different destination.

Don't click if you are not certain.

Before clicking on any such mail, you have to view the source! The link's name as it is displayed in the e-mail must match the name of the actual URL.

Try viewing the source for this page and search "support.ebay.com" to get to the actual link -- notice how the href does not line up with the displayed text between the larger/smaller brackets.

If in doubt, please:

1. Note the name of the link
2. View the material's source
3. Search for the link name
4. Compare href with display name

If there is any difference, don't click on the mail but report it to the party that the sender is pretending to be.

e-Presence is being ever present; going below the surface of high-impact e-mails (for better for worse) and viewing the source is, sadly, a new and necessary skill.

Proliferation vs. Quality

The proliferation of e-Learning tools is doing for training what Desktop Publishing did for print: Jeopardizing quality!

Without an experienced understanding of e-Learning’s extended virtues and requirements, any project run the risk of being defined by an application’s feature-set rather than the underlying demand for increased knowledge. Before even considering a tool, the organization must examine its own capacity to define, develop and benefit from training.

The organization must visualize both project and product, playing through key scenarios and measurements before any quantity of quality let alone success can be assured.

True for e-Learning, even more so for e-Presence!

... just replace "training" with "collaboration" in the statements above.

Without proper consideration, e-Presence may stoop to become e-vasive presence providing nothing but digital means of pushing around the monkey. e-Mail's terrible ease of Cc'ing everybody and his neighbor becomes the premier "I told-you-so" tool...

As for e-Learning so must e-Presence follow the "Three Rules of effective CBT". Always consider:

• Content Before Technology
• Collaboration Before Technology
• Culture Before Technology

If in doubt, drop me a note and I'll provide more real-life examples.

Showing Off Any Wall

The biggest limitation to cell phone cameras is the cell phone display. Panning around a couple of hundred pixels of a hi-res image doesn't really do it. OK, if you click your friends it is nice that their faces show up with an incoming call. However, the sense of real presence is still mediocre at best.

But what if the cell phone could go beyond the screen? Literarily...

Mitsubishi Electronics says it can -- they are looking at smart and intelligent ways to add a miniature projector to the cell phone.

Imagine having larger images come down -- either pushed from another phone or pulled from an on-line album -- and be projected on to a wall, say the dimension of four letter-sized sheets of paper.

That would bring information sharing and true collaboration one big step further, allowing the cell-phone based cameras to add to the real communication. Rather than looking for details never available in a stamp-sized original there would be a wall of information upon which the e-Presence could gain additional traction.

Flying High

Home-bound at 30,000 feet with the minutes being done ... a movie may be in order. Today's laptops certain have the power and the drive. However, too much presence is not a good thing.

Sharing the film on the B-seat's center table may be a nice gesture -- but only if there are sufficient head-plugs for all to jack in!

Cranking the volume above the engine's roar will provide the surrounding 3 seats in front and the 3 in back with more noise than they bargained for -- and the ones behind will likely be distracted by the glimpses between the seats too.

It is very disruptive. Either all viewers wear the headphones or no one listens in at all. Being involuntary present in a chopped-up movie is anything but pleasant.

And, by the way, it doesn't pay trying to hide your photos by turning the laptop. Either you show the screen to the entire aisle or you risk an all to readable reflection in the window! If you need to look at something private, get a 3M Privacy Filter

Pattern Recognition

Just reread William Gibson's latest novel and the first in present time. "Pattern Recognition" is a master piece and Gibson continues to define the soon-to-be impact on our daily lives and adds terms like "cool hunter" and "footage heads" to his impressive list of revolutionary concepts like "cyberspace".

Pattern Recognition highlights key aspects of e-Presence today, presented in an exquisite English where single sentences often commands to be repeated in much the same way as striking lines of poetry can be recycled for lasting impact and satisfaction. The vantage point is now, digital and as literary fulfilling as any vintage le Carre like "The Constant Gardner".

E=MC^2

Bending math and lending a memorable formula to new use may help you remember the prerequisites for e-Learning to become truly EFFECTIVE learning…
Effectiveness = measurements × content ^ 2 (©Ulrik Ramsing)

Training without measurements is like car without wheels;
it may be comfortable but it will get you nowhere.
Measurements are the interface between the vehicle and the ground one needs to cover; measurements are the process that relates training efforts to increased knowledge. If no immediate measure appears available, dig deeper and seek to combine several sub-indicators to form an empirical index. If a measurement still doesn't surface there is a very strong likelihood that training is not the right solution to the problem – or, worse, that the problem is not sufficiently defined to justify training!

When the wrapping provokes more attention than the present,
the attention should have been wrapped more around the problem.
Without relevant content an e-Learning solution is nothing more than a knowledge management system; in best of cases capturing data but providing no baseline by which such data may become valuable information. Relevant, inspiring and experience-creating content breaks or makes the user’s motivation; content is the most important driver for realizing e-Learning’s premier value proposition: Reduced learning time and in-creased knowledge retention. (©Ulrik Ramsing)

Ramsing's Rules of Successful CBT

When planning your e-Learning projects, consider Ramsing’s 3 Rules of successful CBT (©Ulrik Ramsing). Always consider…
Content before Technology; no measure of wonderful technology can make up for under funded content. Reversely, if the content is good, even the worst engine may be forgiven. If in doubt, consider an obnoxiously slow and poorly designed site … showing you next weeks lotto numbers. Content always wins!
Culture before technology; if the culture does not encourage training and support collaboration there is no argument for a high-tech solution. Introducing e-Learning with a personal touch – in person or by a known authority – does wonders for initial interest and continued motivation. Cultivate the workers to make the culture work for you! (©Ulrik Ramsing)
Collaboration before technology; digitizing documents and adding new media does not make e-Learning. Truly effective e-Learning includes a dynamic component where triggered experiences and best practices may be captured, refined and deployed; staying with the organization and benefiting performance across time and believed barriers.

e-Presence Defined

e-Presence is the superset of all electronic communication, be that e-Business, e-Commerce, e-Service, e-Learning or plain vanilla e-Mail. The common denominator and e-Success-factor across all these tools is the inherent ability to be up front & personal, engaging with the recipient in a personal form and fashion. Being personal / having the ability to personalize is absolutely key!
While corporations may save gzillions in the supply- and delivery chain of e-Commerce, the market leading implementation does something far more important for the consumer; something far more important than comparison shopping. It brings back what was lost when the local grocer was outgunned by the retail mall: Personal customer service. The convenience of the owner remembering what would otherwise have been forgotten on the way out the door -- like the anniversary flowers or diapers running low.
e-Presence is looking beyond each separate information channel, seeking to make each augment the other and strengthen the overall communication -- be that to and from a corporation or an individual. e-Presence is being there, in whatever form that suits the recipient; personally and with valuable content.

e-Learning Delivers

On the issue of professional, industry-strength e-Learning, the “what and why?” of the last century have been replaced by today’s “when and how”. Progressive corporations and governments of all sizes have embraced e-Learning as an effective part of the needed training solution, which addresses the ever raising demands stemming from a decreased work-force and an increased daily complexity of both white- and blue-collar work. Why? Because e-Learning is effective learning! (©Ulrik Ramsing)

Make Directions Known

Seneca said: "If one does not know to which port is sailing, no wind is favorable". Nowhere is this more important than in the challenge of modern mergers or implementation of new technology. Unless the specific goals and steps to reach them are clearly defined and communicated, even the best intentions will fail.