Services

Collaboration Technologies

• In the current, networked world, collaboration is a common way to work, especially where there is a need for integration of activities or the work is complex. Good collaboration can result in higher productivity and higher creativity. concentration is on the people and processes that the technology can support, not on the technology as an end in itself.
• Collaboration requires individuals to work together in a coordinated way, and towards a common goal. Collaboration software helps to facilitate that, and it provides tools that help with communication whether collaboration is done locally or virtually. People collaborate. Collaboration technology such as Joomla, Drupal, Alfresco, and SharePoint support that collaboration.
• Collaboration can start as part of a grass roots movement in an organization, or it can be formally driven by management. A strategy for collaboration that is supported by leadership and that has no obstacles for employees can be successful. The software is the easy part. Getting the people to use it requires understanding their needs and requirements and applying a process of change.
• When an organization wants a new technology, when it already has a collaboration tool that needs to be upgraded to something current, or when an older technology needs to be changed, the solution is to combine knowledge of the technology with understanding of how to get it implemented and received well. This works when there is a robust change process and lots of communication.

eLearning

• Learning is no longer separated from work or school, but is something that is integrated in the fabric of life--and we are in the midst of redefining it that way. For a person to grow, every experience that they have prepares them for more growth. Complex learning is related to this goal, and people are using many different ways to obtain and assimilate their knowledge as they move about their day-to-day activities. Instructional design is changing.
• The technology is there to support the learning. Sophisticated software such as Articulate and Adobe eLearning Suite give us the ability to design and develop eLearning content that is based on knowledge of new educational theory.
• The new Tin Can Alley API will be baselined soon, and the vendors of learning development software are anxious to keep up. This new API will play into the mobile world.
• The future of eLearning is evolving. The shareable content object relationship model, SCORM, is the current de facto technical standard for interoperability of learning content and Learning Management Systems and it is serving us well. We can take interactive online classes that have been made possible because of SCORM. We have the SCORM standard, but the future is different, not passive. Mobile technology and immersive, interactive learning is getting a lot of attention right now.

Graphic Design

• The purpose of Graphic design is to create actionable design solutions that develop an individual or an organizations strategic goals. Graphic design establishes the conceptual and stylistic direction for a project, and fulfills design solutions to their completion. Some of the areas included in graphic design are: branding, graphics, communications, research/strategic, environmental design primarily for print media or use on the web. Additional areas include: web banners, CMS template development, interactive forms, and e-publications primarily for digital media. Graphic solutions are meant to be visually compelling so they can drive revenues.

Knowledge Management

• The discipline of KM has evolved over the past 10 years. The use of KM can create a framework within which an organization can use what it knows. KM practitioners can discover, analyze, and use existing social and work networks to make the organization more efficient.
• There is a lot of information available, but it is not always cohesive, and it is not always related to other information in creative ways. KM uses people, processes, and technology to help the organization to capture and create knowledge, share and disseminate knowledge, and acquire and apply the knowledge that is captured. KM is interdisciplinary. It uses tools such as databases and collaboration technologies, it hones the processes in an organization, it helps people to find and use tacit and explicit knowledge, put it in context, and create value for customers and community.

Software Engineering

• There is art and science involved in creating software to make it elegant, robust, and maintainable. The same holds true for the creative act of integrating of commercial software into an organization and making it useful. Software engineering is the discipline of understanding the framework within which software is created and defining and using that framework to best advantage.
• Software engineering is a young discipline that is trying to define itself and its boundaries and content. Some of the concepts that are being explored are: the idea of general purpose code that can be reused; modeling projects before they are coded; agile forms of development--compared to process and documentation driven software development; the SWEBOK ISO standard.

Systems Engineering

• Systems Engineering is a term that seems to have many definitions, and each discipline, for example, software engineering, understands it differently, but underlying the understanding is the fact that systems thinking is the core of systems engineering.
• Systems thinking takes a view of something from a high level point of view, looks at it from a boundary and interface perspective, analyzes the relationships between and among objects in the system, and works to make them work well together, as a unified whole. Systems thinking can have wrappers applied to it such as the INCOSE model of requirements analysis, architecture and development, creation, integration and test, and sustainment. it can have an Agile wrapper put to it: strategy, release, iteration, daily, continuous. The wrapper can also be a framework that supports the self-organizing capacities of complex adaptive systems.

Web: Artistic Development and Content Management

• Many people think of web development and design as the creating or putting together of HTML code, CSS, XML and Javascript--or the use of PHP, or Ruby, and so on. That is true, but there are other components that are needed to make the web useful in a practical way. How does your user want to interact with your site? How do you want them to interact with it? How does the student understand what you are trying to teach them on a web based interface? What makes a person want to stay on your site and continue to investigate…or purchase? What is your look and feel, your branding? These things are designed by a collaboration of creators, editors, publishers, and administered and monitored by administrators.
• Content management is an exercise done in a system that is designed to support import and creation of documents or multimedia, handling of workflow, publishing to a version controlled repository, tracking, managing, and publishing content. Among other things, content management helps with cost savings and reduction of duplication of work. Joomla, Drupal, Alfresco, and SharePoint are examples of content management software--that can also be put to other uses. XML and XSLT are facilitators of content management.