The TWAIN blog

Google and Microsoft are facing off for your consumer….$s? Nope. Not your cash but your cache. The time spent looking at web pages includes the barrage of embedded advertising you may or may not be aware of. Time spent on web pages means revenue for the companies hosting those links and sites.

But in order to compete with Google, Microsoft has to drop their prices. CNN Money reported today that Microsoft will soon announce that the web version of Office 2010 will be free. This is a direct assault on Google who last week announced that they are going to release a web OS that will be free to compete with other OS’s (SP?) on the market.

Google and Microsoft are tearing it up at each other right now which means some really interesting things for those of us in education who need to provide ways to get students using technology at a small price.

So…let’s do some simple math (because I am a simpleton when it comes to Math).

1 Netbook with a Web-based OS + Web 2.0 Tools + Online Office Suite = Rich, collaborative working tools for the cost of the hardware. A Netbook costs in a range from $100 to about $450 without the cost of the operating system.

Microsoft’s licensing for Windows XP is currently running near $100 per machine because they are pushing Vista on us all. Google releases a FREE Web Operating System which will be available in August.

Throw in some neat Web 2.0 Tools that include document, spreadsheet, presentation tools along with photo, audio, and video editors also available online for free.

Or, get access to Microsoft Office 2010 online (document, spreadsheet, and presentation tools) and throw in the other Web 2.0 tools as well.

And you get a fast track to 1:1 computing for your schools. Prices are dropping on the hardware and the giants of industry are competing by literally throwing their purses to the ground.

But what about network infrastructure? With all this need for Web OS, Web 2.0, and all resources online – how do we get high speed Internet. This is the boom to end the war between all these companies. How will the world access high speed Internet? Will it be owned by the government? Will we be taxed?

Aren’t you glad I have talked about this before? See my previous blog post from Feb 5, 2009 about how Google has been working with Motorola and Microsoft (huh?) to use the old American Broadcast System (pre-digital cable) to funnel GB-TB data lines through our existing cable systems. This old system is owned by the people and for use for the people – you and I. The “white spaces” is the old analog system which is not encumbered with broadcast television frequency and allows for some interesting testing right now to push high speed wireless broadband to any home running that old analog line.

I know. This seems ridiculous right? A little too much of a reach? Kind of like my post from September 8, 2008 about Google releasing a new browser called “Chrome” and how I predicted that they would not make an operating system – but a browser operating system??

What’s next? What’s the next prediction?
Riddle me this – I have to open a spreadsheet program now to access a database. I have to open a separate document program to create a document. I have to open another program for photos and a presentation program to work on a that system.

But what if there was only one program that not only had all these programs running simultaneously but allowed collaboration, sharing, and kept a history for the entire project? What if I didn’t need an office suite but a one-stop shop that let me do everything I needed in one window (whether I used Firefox, IE, Safari, Android, Chrome, etc.) and from whatever web device I had?

I believe this is the next WAVE. How long until Microsoft/Apple starts their own? And will they name it something similar to Wave like Tsunami? Current? Tide?

Google has developed the idea of Wave but they haven’t combined all these elements into the one system yet. I think that may be Wave 2.0 or Apple’s Me 2.0 or Windows 7.5…

Whatever the case will be, it looks like the math problem is more simplified if this is the next evolution:

Netbook/Phone + Web (Wave) = Collaboration All-in-one access point

Is this crystal ball prediction correct? We will have to wait and see….

See previews of Microsoft Office 2010 on my summer tech training site (at the bottom of the page).

Anyone else see the Google Wave?

This video is a bit long (over an hour); but it does show how Google Wave works. I like the introduction of it where the speakers shares that this works in HTML 5 and not as a desktop application.

No OS required. Just a browser.

This isn’t my first post about the shift from using a hard-drive operating system to the web OS. Wave is another step in that direction by calling their new system a Product, Platform, and a Protocol.

We are moving to the personalized web in leaps.

At 6 minutes and about 15 seconds in, the speaker starts sharing how email has evolved from sending individual messages to the Wave system which is about shared conversation. At 9 minutes in, watch how a conversation can be split in structure to allow you to respond to certain parts of it. In other words, you can have threaded discussions inside each message. You have to see it!

Instant messaging changed as well at the 10:20 minute mark. As you type, the message appears. You don’t have to wait to hit enter. Messaging is INSTANT. You don’t have to spend time watching “this person is replying”. You can be crafting your response as they type it.

At 15:30, you can see how easy it is to add images to a conversation. Click and drag. No import, export, upload, download. Click and drag.

At 20:00, if you use Google blogger you can see how conversations can spill in to the wave from blog comments. Works on cell phones too!

At 35:30, collaborative editing with LIVE changes seen. This is something missing from the current Google Document tool. But with this WAVE, you can see the changes occur immediately.

At 44:20, spell check is explained to work inside context. It doesn’t isolate words, the tool checks the context of the word in the sentence.

At 49:00, there is a show of how a gadget made by a developer changed the conversation in a Wave. Since this audience is developers, the speakers show them how gadgets can improve the conversations. Interesting to see that the gadget developed in the conversation shows how to make a threaded discussion into an “e-vite” type of tool.

This part of the conversation turns into how the Wave connects to Google docs, maps, earth, etc. Using “bots”, the tools are now part of the collaborative environment. They demo using a poll generator tool that literally combines the Google Spreadsheet (Form) tool into the live conversation of the wave. At 57:30, you can see how they use an extension to connect the Wave tool with something like Twitter.

Wave is an Open Protocol so you can customize your own waves and wave tools. For developers, they can build their own extensions into Wave similar to how Firefox allows developers to add their own additional programs.

I can honestly say that this idea is very interesting. It isn’t about email, messaging, document editing, etc. This is about a one-stop shop place for collaboration. Live conversation and collaborative editing that forms in waves and shares in waves. As mentioned in the last post, this all involves less clicking! Less wait time. Less load time. Instant communication. Very cool!

Today, I took part in a webinar on Microsoft Live@EDU and their new Exchange Online services for school districts and I was blown away. I was given a preview to a system that changes how we manage information in our districts. The squeaky wheel lost to a cloud today.

If anything – watch their interactive website which includes animated films designed by students. Link is embedded or find here: http://my.liveatedu.com/

Here is what Microsoft says they will provide FOR EACH USER:
25GB of space on SkyDrive (their own individual home folder)
5GB of space in email
Ability to send 20MB per message
Instant messenger (which can be open for staff and not students)
Microsoft Sharepoint services – collaborative documents shared online
A website that includes blogging, calendars, document sharing, etc.
Microsoft Office Live access (Word, Power Point, Excel) online (no installers)
Microsoft Live Search

In other words, a teacher could upload their files to this system and then open rights up to students to view/edit. Teacher and administrators could create folders to share documents and files. The shared folders on our file server migrate up to this system and then we assign rights to the specific folders.

Microsoft Office Live is the web version of Office – Word, Power Point, Excel. Students and staff would have WEB access to these tools without having to install on their own computers.

Total cost for this: $0.00 for hosting. No advertisements on ANY student access service but staff may have Microsoft advertisements (only in top banner of screen). The advertisements aren’t commercials but a banner about a particular Microsoft service.

Positives:
Hosted off-site (no need for a second NOC….or a first NOC for that matter).
Free – and that is free forever (no fee later)
Web access means all materials are online all the time. No second upload for teachers wanting to post documents on their websites. They simply assign rights to their documents in their folders to who they want to view or edit the docs.
Microsoft availability online means kids and staff access Microsoft Office on any computer with Internet connectivity. Same version for everyone.
Built-in Spam and Virus scanner
Leave-ability: Graduates from district take email and info with them. Account goes from district address to @hotmail.com if they want it. All documents and files go with them and out of our control and management
Lots of space gives 30GB of space per user but may be up to 50GB once we get into the Office/Web apps
Private and secure
Collaborative work environments online
Instant Chat
Student websites – Students could make portfolios for classes and be able to share them with future employers/colleges.
Teacher websites – Teachers can generate websites with blogging, calendars, documents, document sharing, etc.
Syncs with our current Active Directory and setup (all current and archived emails with Folders migrate over)
Mobile phone access is built-in via the web
Low maintenance
Low migration issues
Offers ShareView which includes ability to link 15 users for screencasting

Negatives:
Hosted off-site so if the site is down or Internet is down, we are down.
Advertising on some areas (but it is for Microsoft products only)
25GB of space gives freedom to put music, games, etc. in the system. It will be hard to monitor it but we will look into that and how our network access control can help.
Microsoft – most viruses and hacks are targeted at them but in this day and age, we are all targets
Some migration issues. I think if we are to do this, we pay for the advanced migration tools and maybe hire an engineer to come help us migrate it all over. This could be our only cost.

My district uses Active Directory and Microsoft for everything so the migration will be simplified. The presenter in the webinar shared how universities migrate over 30,000 users in a week. We have 710 staff and have not opened up student accounts beyond the high school.

All this said, does the cloud beat the wheel? Do we migrate completely online? This changes cost dramatically but then the money for our own hosting goes to bandwidth. We open the pipeline!

I want to know from others out there who are experiencing this what their thoughts are. Districts, universities, businesses going Web 2.0 cloud – what do you think? Is it worth $0.00 for this??

Today I had the honor and privilege to present some ideas to the Hill Country Computer Club here in Kerrville. I was given information before the presentation that the audience was mostly senior citizens and that I should prepare to share about resources on our district website. Having the recent transition to our new website, I was thrilled to not only show them the new site but also explain the concept of “cloud” computing and Web 2.0.

I shared with them my vision for migrating resources to the web and the justification for why. I explained the differences of office tools, operating systems, and the push for online assessments. I also shared various resources found in social bookmarking and sharing collaborative spaces in Google documents. I kept my eyes on them to make sure I wasn’t going overboard or extending beyond what they were understanding; but they were all on board. I went for 90 minutes and even answered questions.

I left that group today with some great responses! They want to learn more and that is the best response!

They also would like to get more youthful representation in the HCCC. I may get together with my computer teachers at the middle through high school to see if there is some shared interest.

And they would like to help with a project I have in mind to get older computers out to the community. We have a huge recycling problem in this world when it comes to our computers. Instead of thrusting them out to third world dumping grounds, we could strip them down and put Ubuntu on them for Internet access in our community. The HCCC is interested in helping with this project and I welcome their help!

Anyway, it was a great time today to share with another group in this great community. I feel so blessed to be able to go out and share within our community about our ideas and to hear feedback on what we can do to improve our vision. I don’t know of many technology directors who are so willing to go out and connect to their community resources! I wish more of my colleagues would do this. Step out of your offices and into the community that may or may not be your “target” audience. Share. Collaborate. Learn.

And HCCC – I already have some ideas for your new website! Let’s keep talking!

I recently wrote a note to a friend and colleague. It was one of those stream-of-consciousness type of emails where afterward I thought maybe it should have been a blog post. It is now. I feel like I wrote it to send to my old friends and colleagues in the places I have worked before. This is the note that says camp is fine and I am better because of it.

To my colleagues back….[home?]…..in my previous place,

I am learning a lot. Or to take Toffler’s line: I am “learning, unlearning, and relearning”.

Just when I think I have something figured out, it changes. The new job is really an adventure. There is so much I want to do and so much I want to give to everyone in the district. But I can see how frustrating it can be with rules, restrictions, laws, expectations, and steep hills of resistance to change.

I miss being able to hide out in your classrooms, offices, or libraries. Taking that moment to watch students engaged in learning or hearing someone share more than just a frustration with a piece of equipment. I miss hearing people talk about the shows they watch, the events with their kids, or the movie they went to see. I miss the copy room chatter, the early morning coffee drinkers moving from a low grumble of speech to…well….speech itself.

I miss the energy of the campus and being an integral piece of it, instead of feeling like a guest to all the campuses. (At least I now have a badge and don’t have to sign in each time I visit or run my Raptor badge in my own district.)

This week, I got to watch the local channel which broadcasts district events and saw myself sharing about Trumba calendars, Google Documents, and Internet safety tools for families. The communications director for the district is a parent who reads the calendar events on air for the community. She interviewed me for 45 minutes the other day on camera and we posted it on the community access channel.

What’s amazing too is getting stopped running in to Blockbuster by someone who watched the show and them asking me about Google documents! I went to the local grocery store tonight and heard a mom say to her son in the shopping cart that I did look like the guy they saw on TV.

And I think of the other broadcast ideas I have for not just me sharing technology tools but a live classroom experience of me sharing tools with a groups in studio. Perhaps we could live-blog, Twitter, or even share resources with others while recording the show for the channel here. My brain swarms with ideas!

That’s the fun part of the job! The ideas! I am also on a committee of teachers, principals, a board member, and support staff helping develop ideas for instructional technology for the district. Developing the “vision” if you will for our students. I have done this before and witnessed excellent leadership on how to lead a group. I infused wikis and our conversation is really interesting on that site (wish I could share but it is a closed conversation).

Showing the team a wiki has not only allowed up a common collaborative place but it sparked a new tool for the members to use. This is the first time many of them have seen a wiki. I imagine the same look on the faces around my conference table when showing our wiki was about the same look on the faces of early man seeing a stick on fire the first time.

Something else I did this week, I took my entire team of techs to the high school to work on over 70 old tech requests stuck in the system. That wasn’t as fun! It was one of those “have to do’s” rather than we “want to do”. Before we went, I organized all the requests and then we “huddled” where I told them to do four things:

1) Smile

2) Think “I like you!” – this is based on a customer service technique from a video called “Give Them the Pickle!” with Bob Farrell. I told them to just think that they liked everyone no matter who they came into contact with.

3) Take notes based on what the teachers say. – I told them that half of what they hear isn’t the message. The message is that the teachers want to be heard. If you take notes, you are paying attention and they will LOVE you for it. Truth is – the notes can be used to provide more information about what happened so we can fix it better in the future as well.

4) Test what you complete to make sure it works not just for you but for the user. Common mistake in tech repair is to fix it but not test it with the user’s login.

An entire day of the entire tech team at one campus. And you know what? We did a great job! I think it inspired my crew more than it helped those teachers. The fact that they spent the first hour huddled and reviewing ideas for each request was great as well. Group brainstorming! Teamwork!

I love it. It is definitely these little moments that make it all worth while.

There are LOTS of problems too. It isn’t perfect. People are mad at me. People are frustrated. There’s those kinds of issues of people and progress that go with any job and any day of the week.

But all in all, I am learning more and more about how I can be better and to be a better person. This is just the right training for me at the right time.

Now if only the paddle-boats worked….;p