Greetings,

Near the end of the relatively brief (45 min.) Hubble 3D Imax movie, I sat transfixed with my 3D glasses as I watched a fly-through sequence composed of Hubble images extending at greater resolution into the furthest visualized part of space known as the Ultra Deep Field (a narrated version of this original Hubble sequence is represented in the embedded video without the full 3D or Imax effect).

Its principal value is to visualize data in a manner that both young and old can appreciate: intuitively grasping a meaningful sense of the speed, distance, and time involved in racing many times the speed of light through the visible universe to witness its awesome vastness and complexity.

As I left the theater, I realized there was something else of great value that the Hubble image sequence demonstrates: the value of creating and using physical models to help us form mental representations (mental models) of information that may otherwise be too novel and complex to grasp.

Watson and Crick discovered the double helix structure of DNA by building the right kind of physical model from which to test their thinking (mental model) and use this model-based reasoning to validate their hypotheses and make a breakthrough discovery about the nature of life.

As designers of systems to support users, customers, and/or learners, we must tap into the power of prototypes as physical complements of our mental models to create a conversation between what we want to do and what can be done.

Whether we are astrophysicists, research scientists, designers of systems, or pursuing empirical understanding of the nature of anything, we cannot ignore the tremendous power that this kind of model-based reasoning can impart.

I welcome your comments on these topics in reply,

Doc

The effects associated with the second wave of this innovation have been given many names (Internet 2.0, Web 2.0, the read-write Web, etc.), but it’s worth examining the nature of this wave of change as we try to adjust as individuals, organizations, and society to where it has brought us so far, and where we might be going.

It can be helpful to consider a short list of what types of change this innovation has ushered in and what has been made obsolete or at least passe. Parsed out as categories, we can consider them as “no more” and “now new.”

So to kick it off as a discussion starter, here are a few “no more” and “now new” concepts to consider.

No More: Broadcasting (or anything like it, including slimmed down versions like narrowcasting). Think of it as no more dial changing from pre-selects determined by others instead of yourself.

Now New: Self-directed use and production of information and media. Think of it as searching from a global information storehouse for what you want, when you want it. And producing it through many means (email, blogs, social networking and social media sites, etc.) without prior approval or high cost of entry. Let me coin a term for this “now new” concept to distinguish it from broadcast: self-cast.

No More: Hard-sell marketing and sales (not even the simmered version, soft-sell).

Now New: The Internet as an informational and social medium has placed customers in empowered positions of high (if not non-negotiable) expectations with organizations who provide products or services. Social networking and social media with rapid and extensive Word Of Mouth (WOM) and user/customer rating and review infrastructure have enabled prospective and existing customers to wield powerful influence. Crowd-sourcing and other terms have been coined to represent strategies used by organizations, but perhaps a new term is due here too for the opposite of hard (and soft) sell: how about “soc-sell” (pronounced, like so-sell).

No More: Top-down, administrative planned change, long the mainstay of how hierarchical organizations made changes that affected their employees and customers (with little or no input from them), is winding down in the face of these new expectations.

Now New: Through research and practice, bottom-up planned change has been assuming a greater role in the way organizations redefine their operations, but the Internet has accelerated this in ways that make user, customer, and learner centered change a growing trend, especially in organizations that more heavily rely on the Internet, such as e-businesses, software companies, online learning providers, etc.

I will leave this short list for now with these initial concepts and invite your ideas about them as well as any additional entries of the “no more, now new” variety, at least for the sake of discussion and learning about this wave of Internet innovation.

Comments welcome,

Doc

Customer Experience Management is often seen as a marketing discipline emerging from the traditional customer service and customer relationship management niches to meet evolving needs that precede customer service and extend beyond the transactional focus of CRM.

What is missing from this picture is a perspective on CEM that links it to the sweeping changes ushered in by the adoption of the Internet for communications, commerce, and learning and the understanding of this field as an innovation in marketing practice that is the natural response to this wave of change.

Rather than flesh out an essay, I will leave this as an entree to discussion in which I pose a challenge and propose a solution (from the perspective of organizations that need to address the customer experience).

Challenge:

The disruptive technology of the Internet as a powerful informational and social medium has placed customers in empowered positions of non-negotiable expectations with organizations who provide products or services.

Solution:

In this radically changed marketing context, Customer Experience Management (CEM) skills are a reliable path to building and preserving positive brand and customer trust, loyalty, and advocacy. These skills require ongoing customer needs research, requirements, and design of customer experience that are in step with social networking and rely on customer collaboration.

A second wave of adoption and use of refined CEM practices can address customer experience in ways that keep in step with these changing expectations and the underlying technological and social change at its source.

Discussion:

How do you view these challenges and how do you see organizations addressing customer experience in this context?

Comments welcome,

Doc

Despite thoroughly enjoying all of the synchronous and asynchronous collaborative features in the early brainstorming and outlining of the new version of the Strategic Networking book, it’s all over by the end of 2010.

That’s a shame because I don’t believe I will find the utility of seeing instant changes in draft text occurring between myself and my co-author that supported our desire to write this book in a purely collaborative manner, rather than writing sections or chapters as separate drafts and editing each other’s work. And the utility of creating separate Waves devoted to stages in the writing process, sections in the book, or the feedback of other (invited) Wave users was another feature I will miss.

Although I have used many applications for online collaboration since co-writing my first book, I enjoyed this one and will sadly “wave” a goodbye to it.

As for those who envisioned it as part of a failed social networking strategy, I don’t agree. For me, it was (as with most Google online applications) a useful online tool for getting something done and doing that work with others online.

I am interested in knowing what other applications for online collaboration might be candidates for highly interactive, collaborative brainstorming and writing in this manner – and welcome your comments in reply.

We have seen them in many familiar places – the ubiquitous surface computing interfaces that show us the changing weather and events with the swipe of a hand over the surface of a large vertical display.

Surface computing – now several years in use – has a horizontal kin in the growing number of tabletop interfaces in which one or more people can use its touchscreen interface to manipulate onscreen objects such as photo galleries, videos, maps, etc.

In the world of audio – and more specifically music – there are tabletop interfaces that are used to create and perform digital music.

On screen icons or tabletop physical blocks allow point and click and drag and drop emulations of slider and knob control on analog synthesizers.

What is especially promising about these types of tabletop computing applications is that their use can be highly participatory and collaborative.

As a music synthesizer enthusiast, one of my favorite tabletop music devices is the Reactable. Keep in mind that the performances in these videos are improvised by its designers from Barcelona.

Reactable Systems is a spin-off company of the Pompeu Fabra University and is collaborating with its Music Technology Group, one of the worlds largest research labs in music technology.

Here is a reactable (solo) music performance from the Sonar 2010 Festival in Barcelona:

Reactable Live! At Sonar Barcelona 2010 from Reactable on Vimeo.

Although the tabletop is designed for live performances, this interface design would have interesting applications for online collaborative learning and performance using visual icons instead of physical blocks.

What are your thoughts about the tabletop interface for live or online collaborative multimedia applications?

Authentic Learning Innovation in an Online Music Course

http://www.programhouse.com/webpres/phedulearn10pres1.htm

This Web-based PowerPoint presentation (optimized for the Internet Explorer browser) describes the rationale and strategy for an authentic learning innovation to improve the relevance of course activities that address adult learner needs. An online digital repository of authentic learning artifacts are used in an online music course (exploration of western classical music) as the first stage of an action research project for which user experience data collection will be performed.

Authentic learning in this context is based on an initial curriculum innovation in which traditional assessments (quizzes, essay assignments, etc.) of recall of facts and concepts about music composers and compositions are augmented by a series of online music resources (music scores, audio/video performances) that form the basis of discussion and project assignments in which learning is situated in the authentic practice domain of music (composition and performance).

Presented at the 10th Annual International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies in Barcelona (Spain), July 5-7, 2010.

Insights, experiences, and other comments welcome in reply,

Doc

NB: Here are links to the performance and score for the composition illustrated in the presentation:

Composition: Songs without Words, Op. 38, No. 6 Duetto (by Mendelssohn)

Performance: Emil Gilels (courtesy of vaimusic.com youtube channel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtLgjZCEbQ&feature=channel_page

Score: (public domain from Petrucci Library)

http://imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/c/c1/IMSLP00653-Songs_Without_Words__Op_38.pdf

(note: scroll score down to page 20 for beginning of No. 6)

After starting by following simple vocal scores from Renaissance music, by the fourth week, learners became reasonably skilled in following the score to be able to follow this piano composition from the Romantic period, and in doing so, their mental model of both composition and performance was very strong.

I began by exploring the relative value of prior knowledge, preferences, and motivation, but out of prudence born of many research literature reviews, I have heretofore avoided addressing the “other” individual difference: intelligence (i.e., capability or capacity) – and what addressing this individual difference might afford in the design of better “experiences” for people in the roles of customers, users, and/or learners.

However, there is growing evidence from empirical research over the past few years that addressing intelligence in certain applications can yield not only improved experience and/or learning outcomes (by addressing that need in people on an individual basis), but also yield some improvement in their cognitive capacity.

For an excellent review of relevant research findings in this area, I refer you to an online “review of research” article written by Martin Buschkuehl and Susanne M. Jaeggi of University of Michigan and published by the Swiss Medical Weekly journal:

http://www.smw.ch/docs/PdfContent/smw-12852.pdf

Here are some findings from their review of research that leads me to revisit intelligence as a viable human factor in my research and work:

* the need for defining intelligence by separating cognitive capacity from knowledge

* our working (i.e., short-term) memory and intelligence share a common capacity constraint

* intelligence improvements can occur in people of all ages, despite constraints due to lack of neural plasticity in older people

* the positive impact of an off-the-shelf real-time strategy video game as (an intelligence) training vehicle

* the positive impact of music lessons on full-scale IQ test performance

These findings will likely spur a wide range of research and application, but among the most promising to me in my current work is the connection between cognitive activities such as the study of music and the positive effect on improved IQ.

As a followup to my previous research and application of online visual resources in online courses, I have begun to compile, use, and informally test a wider application of these types of resources in the context of teaching music in an introductory online college course.

Rather than simply rely on assigned reading in a text and discussion and testing of musical concepts, I am exploring the use of online score reading of a musical composition in conjunction with listening and viewing a corresponding online streaming video (with audio) performance of that composition.

My initial purpose was to address the individual differences of learning style and motivation and to some degree, scaffold what I anticipated would be a relative lack of prior knowledge and experience with music elements and artifacts of this nature.

However, with these noted research findings in mind, I will be considering how these online learning activities might also yield not only understanding and skill in this area, but some possible improvement in intelligence (whether specific to this domain or in general).

One thing I do know is that I have returned to a full consideration of individual differences and how addressing all of these elements of human experience in the products and services we create, we might improve the experience and capabilities of people who use them.

I welcome your comments on this topic in reply,

Doc

A similar comparison based on supporting many features applies to smartphones. If you need to access Web sites that rely on Java support for authenticated login and/or Flash for media (such as a Flash-based Web site, playing streaming video, etc.), the current iPhone and/or iPad will not handle these tasks. For example, teaching work requires Java-based login into Web sites for online college courses, so I chose a Droid smartphone for mobile computing.

By virtue of their size, smartphones are not useful for extensive typing and other computing tasks and even in the case of Android devices, they do not always connect as well as a netbook to WiFi in hotels and other locations.

Mine is a many-device solution: I carry the Droid smartphone and a netbook when traveling. Not only do both devices carry well in a briefcase or backpack and fit nicely into the smallest of hotel safes, they also work together in a complementary manner. This combo works well for me in terms of using the smartphone when I am walking or driving and using the netbook when I am in the hotel or conference site, otherwise storing it in the hotel safe or locked in the car trunk. I also need to transfer image and video with audio data from my digital camera to my netbook to reuse memory cards and backup these files to flash media via USB in support of my conference presentations and book research.

Granted, the tablet PCs and e-book readers with their enhanced features offer an excellent platform for mobile/transportable entertainment and communications. When you consider their use in the context of educational activities such as reading and taking notes, the eventual adoption/support of these devices as the preferred platform in online learning seems inevitable as does many mobile working tasks where limited communications and computing are the norm. In fact, those features are what will likely move me to adopt the iPad in certain usage contexts (especially as an author planning to launch color image with text publications).

Thus, I am left with a question that I can’t answer, but I wonder if anyone can in terms of their own collective needs for mobile and/or transportable computing: is there a single device solution for the road? I welcome your personal insights and experience with mobile and/or transportable computing devices in reply.

In my research, writing, and consulting work over the past decade, I have focused on a single concept (satisfaction) and what it means to people in the roles of customers, users, and learners. I began by exploring the relative value of concepts we collectively call “individual differences” and individually represent by concepts such as prior knowledge, preferences, and motivation.

Digging into what people expect, want, and even require of the products and services we provide, I see increasing value for the need to understand the way they see the world in terms of their experience with providers, whether that be with a business relationship as customers or from inside the products and services as users, learners, and other roles. As we carry about with us a world view in our minds, the mental representations we make of our experience in these roles is of vital concern to anyone who is conducting customer, user, or learner research to determine the nature of their individual experience.

One of the most potent and revealing of these mental representations is a “systems” view we call a “mental model.” It represents the totality of our experience in such a way that we can envision ourselves in it with almost the same clarity as if we were present in our customer, user, and/or learner activities. To test your mental model, close your eyes and count all the windows in your house or apartment. That type of visualization is actually a “running” of your mental model of where you live. You also have mental models for your customer experience.

Tapping into someone’s mental model of their experience seems like an ideal way to gather more robust and potentially useful data to drive our management or at least support of their positive experience. Unfortunately, this individual perspective is not examined as much or as deeply as it should be done and I believe that the customer experience cannot be managed as well if our customers’ mental models are not understood and addressed.

With this challenge in mind, I invite you to explore this video of a presentation by a researcher describing her observations and findings about the importance of customer/user mental models in the early stages of CEM design.

I welcome your comments in reply not only about concepts introduced in this video, but also your suggestions for how we might discover and apply understanding of people’s mental models to improve their experience.

Thanks,

Doc

Notes on using video: It is a long, but interesting presentation at a Google seminar (1:03). If you are short on time, cut to the chase by dragging the time-elapsed slider under the video frame to the 25:47 point for her description of mental models and user interviewing, and at 39:39 for her data visualization of user mental models based on user data.

To play the video, click on the play arrow in the center of the video frame below (or the play button below the video frame). You can expand the video frame to full screen by clicking on the expand icon on the lower right and also click on the speaker icon and use the audio slider to set your speaker volume to hear the audio.

If you click on the following link, it will bring you to a page on his blog where you can click on a link labeled ““Inclusion” Video Project” that will download a five minute video (requires Quicktime movie plugin) of them using Skype during a class session which is narrated by the students and the teacher – and you can hear and see the kids communicating.

http://learningismessy.com/blog/?page_id=367

Watch this video and you will share with them what technology-using teachers and learners can’t always fully explain in words about the need to explore and find solutions to learning challenges with an appropriate use of available (and often emerging) technology.

Comments welcome,

Doc