Sound Editing Softwares?

Currently, I have been looking at a variety of sound softwares. I have become utterly dissatisfied with Audacity because every time I do a noise reduction, I can hear what I like to call computer noise or talk. It’s those high level sweaking sounds that no one else in my department can hear. However, it is very disturbing to me.

Now our department wants to begin doing podcasting, so I have come to the conclusion that Audacity can no longer suffice. Since I cannot use GarageBand (because I am on a PC using Adobe Flash CS4, Articulate, Captivate, etc.), I would love to see opinions on the following:

1. WavePad Sound ($76, free trial)
2. Adobe’s Soundbooth CS4 ($199, free trial)
3. Sony’s Sound Forge Pro 10 ($274.95, free trial)
4. Sony’s Sound Forge Audio Studio ($54.95, free trial)

If yours is not listed here please give me some suggestions. What do you use? What do you like about it? What don’t you like about it? What do you wish it could do?

 

7 Reasons Why We Should Attend Conferences

Personally, I love conferences. I would call myself as a conference junkie; however, in practice I don’t attend very many conferences mainly because my company doesn’t send me places (though I believe they would get more bang for their buck if they did in most cases) though I am working on that (any good conferences for 2010?). Here are a 7 reasons why we all should attend conferences:

#1: It breaks the normal, everyday routine.
For some people this can be very stressful; however, for most, this will be a relief. My personality is such that if I do the same thing a few days in a row, then I am about to pull my hair out or do something exciting just for kicks or do it even slower because of procrastination, etc.

#2: It gives me a fresh perspective.
Because it breaks the normal, everyday routine, it changes my perspective. It allows me to immerse myself in something else (even if it is what I do every day). There is a change of people, place, and pace of normal everyday life.

#3: It is personal (and/or leadership) development and education.
Whether this is development in soft skills or technical skills or competencies, conferences provide a phenomenal way to invest in myself. Furthermore, most conferences do focus on the new, next big thing, the cutting edge, or any other new ideas available.

#4: It helps develop my personal network.
More and more I realize the importance of a professional, personal network outside of my company. This does a lot of things. First, it gives you insight to the customer (whether internal or external). Second, it provides you an avenue to explore and discuss ideas. Third, it also gives you a “backup plan”  (i.e., a way of finding a new job if necessary?).

#5: It’s fun!
What’s better than a “paid working vacation” where I go somewhere for the sole purpose of attending a conference. Yes, some conferences are not as exciting as others; however, everything is what we make of it. So there’s tweeting at a conference, tweetups, “free” lunches, etc.

#6: It is inspirational.
Most conferences I’ve been to have always inspired me to do at least one new thing, or it has re-ignited my passion for something that I am already doing, whether it is something that I have slowed down or stopped working, or gotten bummed about, etc. Regardless, general sessions, breakout sessions, workshops, and seminars all can prove to be rather inspiring. For me, the breakout and smaller sessions are much more valuable than the general sessions.

#7: It is exciting to see and meet certain people, like speakers, bloggers, etc.
In this digital age, I know a variety of people through writing whether it is blogging, tweeting, or whatever. However, there is a missing component to each of these people. It’s the way the sound, the way they talk, the way they hold themselves, the way they interact, etc. While I am not the best at reading people, I know a few people that read people like books in 5 minutes. For example, the other day I was talking with someone (who is really excellent at reading people) about a blog/blogger, and they said something interesting to me, “I’ve read XYZ Blog for a while now [she went on to tell me about her favorite parts of the blog], and so I had an idea about who [he/she] was, how [he/she] acted, and what [he/she] sounded like. However, I recently saw a video of [him/her], and I did not picture [him/her] that way! But now that I’ve seen him/her, his/her blog makes a lot of sense to me.” So going to a conference, we get a more real picture of the people we interact with electronically.

So do you like going to conferences? Why or why not?

 

My Company’s Continued Journey ?Into? Social Media

Today, I heard some disturbing news about the rising potential of my company using Social Media. Since my arrival here, I have been striving for some sort of social learning model. Having sold my boss, the Head of Training and Organizational Development. I create a road map to educate and evangelize others in my company including the Head of HR, the Chief of HR, Quality, and Safety (equivalent to CHRO), and the Chief IT guy (CIO). However, several months ago, previously I wrote (here) about how the Head of HR shut down the investigation and education as a knee jerk reaction to the way some people were using Facebook personally. Furthermore, the CIO, who invited us to speak about the use of video & blogging (though the meeting was initiated by our team), gave his standard, knee-jerk reaction, NO (here). Then the course changed again to exclude the Head of HR due to an organizational change where Organizational Development moved out from under HR to alongside HR (see here). Since then we have paced rather slowly looking at the field receiving more and more requests to add social media to our repertoire. This has picked up so much that one of our regional Sales teams, lead by an idea-guy (like myself) who is simply fascinated with the social media hype and tools, has begun to do some things on their own initiative. So, I began meeting with the Chief Sales and Marketing guy to educate him on what his sales teams were doing. He’s in, so that gives us the Org. Dev. Team, and the Sales Team. Then I met with the Chief HR, Quality, etc guy and he cut me off! I thought that was the end of it! However, he was all in. And based on his input we began to put together a strategy to bypass the Chief IT guy because of his tendency to react NO. We got ready to pitch to the CEO/President; however, in an executive meeting the Chief IT guy showed some interest in the Social Media aspect declaring that they were investigating it, etc. So we changed strategies again to include our IT guy. So my boss and his boss and I set a time to meet with the Chief of IT and his right hand man, and the Chief HR, etc guy said he would make the arrangements.

Meanwhile, I have been working with the Sales team to move forward with some social applications that we do not need “corporate” approval for, especially since the Head of Sales/Marketing was ok with everything. However, today, I just heard that my boss spoke about one of these brainstorm meetings that I have been invited to join tomorrow and the Chief IT guy heard about it. This lead to an interesting conversation for my boss. Apparently, the Chief IT guy didn’t know about our meeting next week, and they were no longer looking into any social media avenues whatsoever, especially as it concerns Facebook or Twitter. This will prove to be a major hit against us and our strategy, and potentially it may even cause a massive internal headache. In the least it will place myself in extremely bad light with the IT group since I’ve become known with this social media initiative at almost every level.

Any pointers? suggestions? comments? Please let me know @dtssmithers

 

Update on Twitter for Learning Professionals m

This is a re-posting from:

Follow all of these learning professionals here:

http://blog.elementk.com/element_k_blog/2009/09/update-on-twitter-for-learning-professionals-.html

Did you know that Element K is now on Twitter? We started using Twitter as an organization in late June, and you can follow us via the account “Element_K,” which can be found at http://www.twitter.com/Element_K. Through this account we are sharing links to interesting industry articles, blog postings, resources and more, as well as announcements about Element K webinars and other happenings.

Beyond that news, back in February I wrote a posting here at Element K Blog—“Twitter, Twitter, Tweet, Tweet”—intended to help people in the L&D industry get started with Twitter. Since then, of course, Twitter has exploded in popularity, brought on in part by celebrity and media attention, but also by very legitimate uses of Twitter, ranging from its role in political events, to its corporate use for marketing, customer service, and even sales, to its use by everyday working professionals as a powerful information gathering tool. It’s this last use-case that I still think is important for learning and development professionals to take seriously.

With that in mind, and because it comes up at every industry event I participate in, I wanted to provide another posting on this topic. Refer back to my earlier posting for a basic introduction and valuable links for more information—there are many more I could share that have come along since, but you only need so many “Twitter for newbies” articles to get you started.

More importantly, I wanted to provide an updated list of leaders in the L&D field that you might consider “following” on Twitter (most, but not all of whom, use Twitter regularly). For each, simply visit http://www.twitter.com/username, such as http://www.twitter.com/Element_K:

* Element_K
* Thomas Stone of Element K
* Anders Gronstedt
* Allison Rosset
* Bill Brandon
* B.J. Schone
* Brent Schlenker
* Cammy Bean
* Jane Hart
* Clive Shepherd
* Cushing Anderson
* Dave Ferguson
* David Mallon
* David Metcalf
* Stephen Downes
* David Wilkins
* Ellen Wagner
* Elliott Masie
* George Siemens
* Grant Ricketts
* David Holcombe
* Gary Woodill
* Heidi Fisk
* Harold Jarche
* Jane Bozarth
* Jay Cross
* Janet Clarey
* Jeanne Meister
* Josh Bersin
* Judy Brown
* Kevin D. Jones
* Karl Kapp
* Koreen Olbrish
* Lance Dublin
* Margaret Martinez
* Mike Cooke
* Tom King
* Mark Oehlert
* Clark Quinn
* Ray Jimenez
* Steve Howard
* Tony Karrer
* Tom Werner
* Will Thalheimer
* Michelle Lentz
* Travis Smith (<-ME, my addition)

No doubt I am missing several key people, but this is a good list to get you started (Not seeing someone you are looking for? Try the much larger directory of people in the L&D field who are using Twitter provided by Jane Hart’s excellent Connexions Directory.)

Consider also the following industry organizations and magazines that are on Twitter, as many provide valuable links and news as well:

* ASTD’s primary account
* ASTD Communications
* Bersin and Associates
* Brandon Hall Research
* Chief Learning Officer magazine
* TrainingIndustry.com
* Talent Management magazine

 

Understanding Social Media & People

I have a wide variety of videos and explanations that I have been using for some time now to explain what Social Media is. In a previous blog post, I wrote about some Common Craft videos that explain Social Media, Social Networking, Blogs, Twitter, Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Podcasting, Photo-Sharing, and RSS. However, I did not explain the rationale behind these tools. I want to thank Dave Wilkins and Kevin Jones, who were the first to show these to me.

Any time someone asks me, “What is so important about social media?” or “Why should we bother with social media?” or “Could you explain social media to me?” I always give them these videos to watch, and depending on whether they watch them or not, I give them more or less of my time. Here are the videos that I ask them to watch (in this specific order).

1. Socialnomics09, Social Media Revolution
2. Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy, at Zeitgeist ‘08
3. Information Re-volution
4. Malcolm Gladwell at PopTech! (2004) on Human Nature
5. Dell’s IdeaStorm

Each video have one or more principles and ideas in them that carry the rationale behind Social Media. To name a few of the more important ideas that drive the importance of Social Media based on each of the videos are:

Socialnomics Video: Social Media Revolution

Brad Anderson’s Video:

1. The Benefits of SM
2. Corporate Communication
3. The Ability to See & Use Employee’s Socialization (Community)
4. Collaboration (WE are smarter than ME)
5. Changing of Roles (to Facilitators)

Information Re-volution

• The Changing Nature of Information

Malcolm Gladwell’s PopTech! Video on Human Nature
(sorry, WP.com won’t let me embed this one)

1. Changing Preferences by Changing Variables: Coke or Pepsi?
2. Story-Telling Problem from Unconscious Cues: People have a fundamental inability to explain their actions/performance/feelings.
3. Perils of Introspection: Asking people to think about what they want causes them to change their opinion what they want & messes up their ability to understand/recognize what they want.
4. So can we trust people?

Dell’s IdeaStorm from Idea to Reality

• External Collaboration via Customers! (WE are smarter than ME)

 

GoToTips: Ad Hoc Meetings

Probably one of the best, simpliest and easiest things to use on GoToMeeting is the ability to meet ad hoc (or impromptu). One of the coolest features about GTM is that the invitations can be sent via email (automatic), via chat message (MSN), or via Twitter (shorten url).

Ad Hoc Meetings

 

Connect Twitter and LinkedIn

So for the longest time I have not used LinkedIn. Simply, it is because LinkedIn seems to be behind Facebook and Twitter in so many respects. One post by Chris Richman, I guess a representative of LinkedIn, said (in 2008) in regards to an API Twitter Application, “I like the idea of Twitter integration. I’ll look into how much work it would take. Only a small % of our users twitter, but I can see how it would be great for those that do.” Against this, he received many remarks. Even up until September 9th, 2009, Chris was receiving comments and votes for a Twitter Sync Application. While I am not sure whether they created such an App, here’s one way to connect your Twitter stream with your LinkedIn Status.

 

My GoToMeeting Idea: GoToTips

When I first took over the Social Media of my company, which was only 1 application, GoToMeeting, I made it my personal endeavor to try to get more social media in my company. However, in the meantime, I wanted GoToMeeting to be a huge success. While it has not been huge in my opinion (because I see a lot of low hanging fruit that could easily be taken for the benefit of our company), the people at my company do believe that GoToMeeting has saved us a ton of money and has been successful.

I was not here when GoToMeeting was selected; however, I was here for the initial training and roll-out through the entire company. In that roll-out I learned tons about piloting and rolling changes out to the field (I came from the field from another company). So one of the first things I did was create something I called GoToTips. While I told my account manager, and she claimed that she would tell someone. However, soon thereafter she was no longer with Citrix Online (holder/creator of GoToMeeting). So I thought I’d begin a series of my GoToTips.

Topic: Forgot Password (GoToMeeting)

Tip: What do you do if you forgot your password? Simply go to GoToMeeting and click on “Log In” on the left side panel under the GoToMeeting Logo. Click on “Forgot Your Password?” under the Password box. Enter your email address and you will receive an email with instructions to change your password.

Login

Forgot Your Password?

Enter Email & Submit

 

Follow Learning and eLearning Professionals on Twitter

In light of Steve Boese HR Twitter List on TweepML, I thought I would make a learning/elearning twitter list that people can easily follow. Just as Steve said about HR Professionals, “Now to get any value at all from Twitter you need to find and follow ‘real’ HR professionals, recruiters, companies, bloggers, the kind of people you can learn from, engage with, and share your expertise with,” it is true with eLearning/Learning professionals.

Most, if not all eLearning professionals know about Jane’s Pick of the Day. Upon checking out her site for Twitter usernames, I discovered Jane’s 100 Featured Learning Professionals on Twitter (too bad I didn’t make that list!), but she had over 1,000 eLearning professionals on the rest of her website. So then I thought I would make my own Top eLearning/Learning Professionals. However, I also wanted to make her entire list available alphabetically below. How would you have liked to have approximately 250 people right off the bat when you started with Twitter?

My Top 250-ish eLearning/Learning Professionals

Since I am limited to only 100 people per list, I had to create 3 lists. Therefore, they are:

List A

List B

List C

Jane’s Learning Professionals

A	B: List 1	List 2	C
D	E	F	G
H	I	J	K
L	M List 1	List 2	N
O	P	Q-R	S
T	U-V	W	X-Z

 

Educational Assistance and Tuition Reimbursement

Apparently, one of our Regional HR Managers has been working along side Legal and the VP of HR to come up with an Educational Assistance Questionnaire. But before I go into this new idea, let me preview what I have seen in other companies. Having worked for several companies, I have had the privilege of utilizing a variety of educational assistance or tuition reimbursement programs. Here are the programs that I have seen:

Eligibility

This is extremely important. Some questions that drive this conclusion are: With whom do we wish to invest? Do we want to use this as a recruiting tool (ie. UPS)? While there are some other questions, the company has to decide whether they want to invest in people that have a track record with the company or not. Are there any exceptions/differentiations due to the job position to the rule/policy (ie. For hourlies, educational assistance after 1 year, but for leadership/management, educational assistance available immediately)? The basic fear is that the company will invest an extra $5,000 or whatever in a person and after they graduate, they’ll leave (however, I believe that to be a Talent Development/Management issue).

1. No Educational Assistance Available.
2. Educational Assistance Only Available for Managers.
3. Educational Assistance Only Available after 1 Year of Service.
4. Educational Assistance from Day 1 to Anyone.
5. Mixture of the Above

Limitations

To me, this is a basic ROI type question. For example, do I want to pay for an employee to get a philosophy degree while they work in Accounting? Some people would say YES while others NO. To me, this needs to be much more flexible than it is. While I am not an advocate of an “any degree program” (though I did love this while I was at UPS), I am an advocate of thinking outside the box. I personally believe degrees like philosophy, theology, etc. are great degrees (though typically not covered by the business-related clauses) because they teach people how to think and write, which is priceless in a company! Especially for leaders! Look at how many people do not work in their degreed field. I’ve heard it said by many professionals, “All a college degree is good for is to show that you can finish something that you started,” or, “All a college degree is good for is to show that you can finish a long term project.” But whatever side, the employer comes down on it results in the following:

1. Educational Assistance for only Business-related degree programs.
2. Educational Assistance for only leadership-related degree programs (basically #1 with a caveat).
3. Educational Assistance for any degree program.
4. Educational Assistance for only Business-related degree programs but not for online classes.
5. Educational Assistance for any degree program but not for online classes.

Monies

Usually, companies cap this at $5,000. This is because of the IRS Publication 970: “If your employer pays more than $5,250 for educational benefits for you during the year, you must generally pay tax on the amount over $5,250. Your employer should include in your wages (Form W-2, box 1) the amount that you must include in income.” However, the Educational Assistance could be associated with a fringe benefit: “However, if the benefits over $5,250 also qualify as a working condition fringe benefit, your employer does not have to include them in your wages. A working condition fringe benefit is a benefit which, had you paid for it, you could deduct as an employee business expense. For more information on working condition fringe benefits, see Working Condition Benefits in chapter 2 of Publication 15-B, Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits.”

1. Based on Grades: 100% for an A-B, 80% for a C, 0% for anything else up to $5,000/yr.
2. Based on Grades & Graduate Level: Under-Graduate: 100% for an A-B, 80% for a C, 0% for anything else up to $5,000/yr. Graduate: 100% for an A, 90% for a B, 80% for a C, 0% for anything else up to $5,000/yr.
3. Paid up front: Usually this is done with only specific schools the company has good public relations with. For example, UPS did this with certain schools in the area where you signed up for classes, notified UPS online, and payment was made (instead of reimbursement though the same rules applied for making the appropriate grades).

So now our Regional HR Manager is suggesting that we add above and beyond our current policy:

This program is available to full-time Associates with at least 1 year of full-time service. The associate must be enrolled in a degree program at an accredited institution. No Internet classes will be reimbursed. The degree being sought must be of current or future benefit to the company. Each semester, the associate must submit a completed application to the Benefits Department at least 10 days prior to the 1st day of class. The Benefits Department must approve the application prior to the start of classes. Associates must earn a grade of “C” or better and meet all course requirements. A copy of an official grade report must be submitted to the Benefits Department. The maximum reimbursable amount is $1,800 per calendar year for undergraduate students. For associates pursuing a master degree, the maximum is 50% of the tuition up to $2,500 per calendar year.

To me, the policy, though better than nothing, is not that great. However, it is still in effect regardless of the current economic climate while most companies have ceased their educational assistance programs. So with that being said, other situations and abuses have caused us to look at this policy a bit further. So our Regional HR Manager has worked with a team and has created a questionnaire. Here it is:

Q. Is this associate the next person you would promote to a leadership or account manager position in your location?

Yes/ No (circle one) Explain why: _____________________________________________________________________.

Q. Is this associate someone that you would recommend to a hiring manager in another location or corporate headquarters?

Yes/ No (circle one) Explain why: ______________________________________________________________________.

Q. Is this associate willing to relocate for a leadership, account manager or professional position?

Yes/No (circle one) Explain when: _________________________. Where: ___________________________________________.

Q. Are the courses this associate listed on their application relative to a career path that will benefit the company?

Yes/No (circle one) Explain how: _____________________________________________________________________________.

Q. Will the courses this associate listed on their application help them in their current position?

Yes/No (circle one) Explain how: ________________________________________________________________________.

Q. Is this a wise way to spend the company’s money?

Yes/No (circle one) Explain why: ________________________________________________________________________.

Q. Is there a ROI for investing in this associates future?

Yes/No (circle one) Explain why: ________________________________________________________________________.

Please answer/ ask these questions in addition to the above if this is a renewal application:

Q. What are some examples of why the company should continue to pay for this associate Education Assistance?

Quantifiable examples: _________________________________________________________________________________.

Non-quantifiable examples: _____________________________________________________________________________.

Q. Do the internal/ external customers of this associate see a ROI?

Yes/ No (circle one) Explain how: _________________________________________________________________________.

Q. Ask the associate how (be specific) they feel they are giving back to the company?

Explain: ________________________________________________________________________________________________.

What do you think?