Question 168 of 365: When are we ready to fulfill our promises?

Making promises is one of the easiest things that I have ever done. They just roll off my tongue after a while. In fact, so long as I am talking to someone that is interesting enough, I will continue to make promises just to keep the conversation going. So long as I can believe in the moment that whatever I am selling is in some way connected to reality, I can justify my promises.

I have promised that Open Spokes would be a platform for answering questions and collaboration. I have promised that we will be able to record webcam video on the fly. I have promised an engaging display and ratings system for the question pages.

I have promised all of these things in the hopes that if I said them enough, theree would be some hope of them becoming true. It is as if I wanted to wish them into being. And as it turns out, I mostly have.

Somehow, thorough all of my high hopes, the system started to work. It started to perform the way that I always knew it could. And yet, I still held it back. I have a working product, one that I think has a huge amount of potential, and I am holding it back for fear that it will be judged too harshly. I have not written about it because I have been worried about people finding out that I am a fraud, that my promises weren’t everything that they were cracked up to be.

I delayed the launch and the testing phase because I wanted things to be perfect. I wanted to avoid the appearance that we are just toting with the idea of what is possible. I have been keeping things under tight wraps, holding on the simple piece of information that Open Spokes is open as of today.

While I am still maintaining that this is a soft open, you can go in and register for an account here. You can then go in and ask your questions and record your reflections. You can share your questions on any social media platform you wish and seek to get responses from others who sign up for an account.

While that may sound nice and technical, it is nothing short of terrifying for me to say those words. The idea I am encouraging people to start actively trying to play in the playground that I have created (co-created with my partner, actually) is so freeing and damning at the same time.

I think my biggest fear isn’t that people won’t like it, but that supporting and developing it will become all consuming. My fear is that it will become something that people actually rely upon.

It is so much easier to believe that you can shut down your project or company at any point and not have any further ramifications outside of yourself. After you have actual users, though, it isn’t yours any more. It is theirs.

That may be the one thing that we miss most in developing new spaces. We miss the fact that simply launching them and having others make them a part of their lives is hugely vulnerable. So, we may try to secretly sabotage our work so that we can go and slink away from it if necessary. With one foot always out the door, it is safer.

Safer, but not as spectacular. Standing beside your creation proudly and proclaiming that it is good is the only way to insure that it actually is good. I guess that is what I am doing. I’m stating for the record that some of the biggest promises I have made in the last 9 months are actually coming true.

Please, go and see for yourself.

Using a Google Talk Gadget for your Domain

I have found that I am increasingly relying on Google Talk to get things done quickly. It is like I have been thrust right back into my days with AIM (8th grade was a big year for me in that regard). I just wanted a way to only have Google Talk as an application for Google Apps. Google has an application for Windows, but I am using a single site browser in order to do it on a Mac.

Step 1: Download Fluid

Step 2: Create an application with the following URL (making sure to replace YOURDOMAIN with your domain): http://hostedtalkgadget.google.com/a/YOURDOMAIN/talkgadget/client

Viola! You have an Google Talk Application that connects specifically to your domain.

SpeedGeek Learning Version .1

The Ripe Environment for Authentic Learning: TIE 2008

The process of creating a Ripe Environment for Authentic Learning is one that must be experienced rather than explained, so it is my most sincere hope that you experience The Ripe Environment today and that you take ownership enough of it to take it with you when you leave today.

Let’s start with the basics, though: defining our terms.

Authentic Learning: Learning for a Real Purpose and with a Real Audience.

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6. It’s the Content, Stupid.

• That is why we use blogs to communicate, not because they are easy, not
  because they are more collaborative, it is simply because they let the
  content speak for itself. Without content you are nothing. Without
  great ideas there is no hope for the future. It is the content that
  matters, not the format. That is why we do blogs, to pull content up
  through the rss straw, roll it around in our mouth-like readers,
  tasting each smooth milkshake post and swallow it down, totally
  satisfying our desire to fill our bellies with content.

7. The Marks of Collaboration

• The Digital Literacy Toolbox (521 revisions at last count)

8. Independent and Interdependent Questioners

• Ask a question here.
• Create something new here:

9. Change Cannot be Institutionalized

• Edupunk heroes

10. The Most Powerful Learning

• The typewriter vs. the fully connected blog post.