Gamification is a hot term in business and education today. According to Wikipedia it is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in a
Gamification Ethics (by Gabe Zichermann) (Photo credit: Adam Crowe)
non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems. I have been thinking about this in terms of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and what really keeps people interested in what they do.
I fully believe that the singularly best way to have someone’s full attention in a project or process is to hook into that person’s passion for the project, process, idea or effort. This, as everyone knows, is not only not easy, but difficult to sustain. It can be easy to start well and then, once the excitement becomes the routine, passion can back off.
2012_09_17 Community Management IMG_0841 (Photo credit: joelogon)
OK, so I’m stepping away from the fire hose for a moment. I’m today wrapping up, if that even makes sense when you’re on the road, week #5 in my new gig as Senior Community Manager at SDL. Collecting and prioritizing my thoughts and experiences will likely take some time, if only because so many of them do not categorize very simply.
Trust (Photo credit: vagawi )
Trust is a treasure that is hard-won and very easy to lose. This goes double for relationships online. One of the foundations of trust is doing what you say you will do. A classic test of trust is the answer of “I’ll get back to you…” to almost any question.
My communities (Photo credit: steven w)
I was asked a really great question recently: what is a successful community manager?
I have a pretty well-formed idea of the answer, but had never articulated it before. My first reaction was to stay away from any kind of description of the community manager him/herself. I feel that a successful community manager is evidenced by the community they work with and for.
English: Alarm clock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Like every other breathing human being, my life is a churning dynamo of ups, downs, and decided neutrals (better know as the mundane). As I slowly gain greater sense of awareness of the moment and the fleeting aspect of each of these moments, I am also becoming more aware of the “I” that can look at the “me” that is going through all of the changes taking places and, frankly, getting its chain yanked regularly and, usually, suddenly. The challenge is to reside ever more in the observer “I” and not let the roller coaster of “me’s” experience drive me.
How does this manifest itself in everyday? Consider this short episode:
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
There is a justifiable lament in the air. It concerns the lack of actual conversation taking place between people. In the online world a large portion of our conversation has devolved into one-click LIKEs or, in the case of LinkedIn, Endorsements. No context. No qualification. No degree. No discussion. Either you LIKE/Endorse or you don’t. Life isn’t like that, by and large.
Illustration by John Tenniel of the Red Queen lecturing Alice for Lewis Carroll’s “Through The Looking Glass” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I have been in a number of conversations lately where my colleagues and friends are grappling with staying on top of their game, so to speak, both online and in the office. Not only are we coping with the well-known information overload, but we have the desire to improve, deepen and expand our skills, knowledge and expertise. Each of us is evolving a methodology to accomplish this, but it changes a lot and, with so much change, it can be difficult to feel like you’re really progressing. It feels so much like the Red Queen‘s comment in Lewis Carroll‘s Through The Looking-Glass : “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
Lees hier hoe je een MOOC kunt opzetten! Massive Open Online Courses deel 1 door Inge de Waard http://t.co/RbLAijLd @Ignatia (Photo credit: Trendmatcher)
I’ve noted a sea change in education and learning about which there has been quite a bit of virtual ink spilled. The phenomenon known as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) has been added to the education lexicon, much to the joy of futurists, learners everywhere, and to the consternation of a number of university and college administrators. Like most things, I can see the light and the dark, along with the difficult.
English: Illustration of “A Mad Tea Party” in chapter in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in which Alice meets the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse. Text on Hatter’s hat reads “In this style 10/6″. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I just had a rather “Alice in Wonderland” experience.
I have pretty severe lower back problems and have a hard time finding exercises I can do that don’t further injure me. I did some research and found that one thing I can do is work out on a recumbent stationary bike. The only thing that hurts after a work out on that is my legs….
I did some online research and found a particularly well reviewed bike. It was the same price on Amazon.com and at a local ‘big box’ sporting goods store, Dick’s Sporting Goods. Since my workout room is on the second floor of my home (a long story…), I chose to shop at Dick’s, since they would not only deliver the bike but hoist it to my workout room and assemble it as well for no additional charge! What a deal!
Mac App Store (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Well, this was a short series. My sixth month experiment as a PC-turned-Mac user is now complete….and I have a few things to report:
- I really liked the speed of booting up or restarting.
- The MacBook Air I used was extremely light, which was helpful given my lower back problems. Years ago I had an ENORMOUS Lenovo ThinkPad which weighed a lot. I liked the screen real estate, but had to take a deep breath to lift my computer bag in the morning….
- Firefox on the Mac is a speed demon, unlike on my Windows machines. Chrome clocks in about even on either one for me.
