Netflix surpassed yet another milestone this week: It now has more subscribers than the largest cable TV operator in the U.S. You heard right…that’s 23.6 million users to be exact… an awful lot of subscribers. Their subscription base grew over 70% last year and that means that more than 7% of Americans now subscribe to Netflix. So, how did they do it? I’m not a business analyst, but as someone who worked at Netflix a few years ago, I’m intrigued by this company’s unstoppable growth and what we can learn by what they’ve done right. I’m also interested with those companies that fail and are left in the wake of the stronger business model, product, or service. Many of the top selling books over the last decade have focused on management principles, leadership development, and developing a culture of innovation. Interestingly, these resources weren’t enough to save the myriad of businesses that have gone under the last decade due to a problem with their business model (Hollywood video, GM), customer base (Crispy Cream Doughnuts, TiVo), or management effectiveness (Enron). In short, their boat took on too much water for any one person, strategy, or "tiger" team to bail out the water fast enough. So, how does a company like Netflix start strong and leave so many able competitors in its wake? And how might these principles or values be transferred to your business environment? Here are a few thoughts. 1. Core business. Netflix is about delivering movies to customers in the most efficient and convenient manner possible. Yes, they’ve added Hulu, Pandora, and Vimeo integration—and videos can be streamed via some Blu-Ray players and video game systems, but, don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Netflix to ship toys with their movies or start selling hardware. They’ve dipped their toe into these peripheral areas a few times (Roku box), but think of the In and Out Burger menu as their nearest of kin when it comes to business models—they provide a singular service and do it better than anyone else. 2. It’s about the software. Sure, they ship movies and answer customer calls and emails, but they’re primarily a small group of highly educated programmers focused on instantiating a customer-focused service. Their algorithms crunch numbers and predict movie preferences while their queues organize user choices and ensure your time spent "on site" is maximized and translates to a steady stream of movies. Their primary strength is the competency of their cadre of programmers from the CEO down. Ironically, I heard many times while at Netflix that Reed Hastings runs his company similar to how a coder writes code. 3. Their price is hard to beat. While Blockbuster kiosks seem to be exercising a "bait and switch" tactic by raising newer movie rentals to $2.99 from 99 cents, Netflix has largely kept their subscription prices fixed—with one nominal increase several months back. 4. Their main asset is their employee base. This is obviously tied to item number two and reflected in their attempt to pay employees above everyone else’s cap. Where else will you find an "open" vacation policy where you simply take time off when you need it? I also remember rolling into the office and arguing with their IT person that I didn’t need the most expensive equipment. There is rarely an expense spared when the implementation of a project is in focus.  In all honesty, working at Netflix wasn’t my favorite job by any stretch of the imagination, but their focus on pay, vacation, and equipment spoke to their commitment to the employee as an asset. The post Netflix’s rise to the top - how did they do it? appeared first on Electronic Papyrus.

Understanding technological literacy, or the lack thereof, is a crucial issue not just for small scale instructional technology projects, but also for qualifying some of the social or environmental drivers that influence and shape our audience’s behavior and preferences. Serif or sans serif font? Sharing or bookmarking digital text and the conventions to support this activity? As we’re working on a statewide online course for the Master Naturalist program, we’ve been reminded of how important these issues are for our audience as we’ve collected data from a recent pilot class. Below are a few recent articles on the topic of digital literacy. The first article suggests that e-learning technologies still have some ground to cover until they replace the bound book while the second article captures Sherry Turkle’s thoughts about how many technology consumers use technology with little awareness or concern for how technology functions below the interface (or application layer). Turkle believes this has adverse effects on both the individual and society. E-Readers Fail At Education "A recent University of Washington study interviewed 39 first-year graduate students in the university’s Department of Computer Science & Engineering, which participated in a pilot study of Amazon’s Kindle DX (a large-screen e-reader). By seven months into the study, fewer than 40% of the students did their schoolwork on the Kindle. The problem: the Kindle has poor note-taking support, doesn’t allow for easy skimming, and makes it difficult for students to look up references (in comparison with computers and textbooks)." "Perhaps the solution-for textbooks, at least-is to bolster conventional text and images with more interactive and multimedia content." Read the article…. Rethinking Technological Literacy Sherry Turkle is a "professor of the social studies of science and technology at MIT, and the founder and current director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self, Turkle has invested years thinking about and publishing her work on these problems….She has also made extensive observations of the generation of students appearing on college and university campuses now. Broadly, she concludes that these students really do not possess the technological literacy they need to understand the technology environments they are engaging with-and she is concerned." Read the article…. The post Digital Literacy - Recent Articles appeared first on Electronic Papyrus.

I recently attended the Webvisions conference in Portland, Oregon. Blaise Aguera y Arcas and Douglas Rushkoff were a few of the well-known speakers. Many of the sessions were led by developers who were working with cutting-edge web technologies. Some of the main themes I heard at the conference were as follows: HTML5, CS3, and JQuery Dave McFarland from PSU framed this discussion well. Our own group at OSU has been leveraging jQuery more with every new project. jQuery is essentially a library of Javascript functions that can be called with simplified code. jQuery is frequently updated and is much more cross-browser compatible than using Javscript in the past. We’ve been using it in our e-learning course development and also with mobile projects—jQuery mobile and the new Dreamweaver CS5.5 with PhoneGap and jQuery mobile support. CS3 and HTML5 sessions were to a large extent focused on future web features, potential web TV usage, and multimedia presentation examples. Digital ethnography, especially as it relates to user interface (UX) and mobility Many of the sessions, including Blaise Aguera y Arcas’ talk focused on user interface and understanding user preference and technology usage on a contextualized level. Kelly Goto and Rachel Hinman were all-star UX proponents and offered numerous ideas for moving beyond analytics and demographics to how individuals use technology at various times of the day. It appears many companies have moved beyond seeking a "sticky" site to one that is addictive. And so, branding and product design were related to sensory activity (especially tacticle) and emotional connection. Hinman’s discussion about the new ecology of untethered mobile devices and how mobile devices can "unlock" place was inspiring. Vision for future (the ecology of new devices) Rachel Hinman and Douglas Rushkoff covered a large swathe of ideas related to future technology trends. Much of Rushkoff’s talk focused on corporate interests versus individual interests and how technology is being used to subvert individuality and free thinking by corporate interests. One of his more memorable claims was that Facebook’s product was not the software, but the child—more specifically, the child’s social graph that can be monetized. He suggested Portland was "our last hope"-whatever that meant…and, he believed technology is most effective in the hands of the youth and "stoners"-not sure he was trying to directly correlate a location with this claim…but, the two were said at various points of his talk. While some of this was tongue in cheek banter, his main goal was to encourage the individual user of technology to be more efficacious and aware of the underlying technologies enabling our daily usage of software and devices. Without such awareness and discretion, he believed that we would be beholden to corporate interests and those who would use technology to slowly devalue individual rights. He said so much more, but the core of his talk reminded me of some of Sherry Turkle’s writings. When Rushkoff heard one of my colleagues worked with Blackboard, he seemed a bit disappointed, but then signed his book with the following, "Blackboard is intentional"—great sense of humor. Hinman recommended several articles. I found the following very enlightening (The Coming Zombie Apocalypse). Media queries, prototyping (Check out Axure), and WebM versus h.264. The post Webvisions 2011 - Technology Snapshots of the Future appeared first on Electronic Papyrus.

We’ll call it a technological earthquake (because we’re currently in Soutern California; you can call it a tornado or hurricane or monsoon… whatever). The "seismologists" are the researchers at the USC Annenberg School’s Center for the Digital Future. They’re reporting on more than ten years of studies, tracking the emergence and use of technology and online activity. (You can find a summary of the results here.) The article identifies some key takeaways from their work. Despite its popularity, social networking suffers from just a 14% confidence rate. According to Jeffrey I. Cole, Director of the Center for Digital Future, "…51% of users said that only a small portion or none of the information they see on social networking sites is reliable." Yep. Makes you wonder: how credible do people think your association’s Facebook presence is? What can you do to improve their confidence in your social networking presence?   The desktop PC is going to dwindle to 4-6% of computer users — and those will primarily be professionals who rely on computers for their work (programmers, financial planners, scientists, writers, gamers, analysts, and scientists). Tablets will soon become the most used personal computing devices because they are "more convenient and accessible than laptops and much more engaging to use." Are you preparing for this shift? And, as you know I like to warn, do your members fit into the tablet profile, or are they in a field that will be in the minority but devoted group of desktop PC users? Because it won’t matter if 96% of the country is using tablets if 98% of your members are still using desktop PCs and/or laptops. Just sayin’.   The irony about personal computing is that we believed they would be labor-saving devices — and they are — but they have also extended the workday into the evening and expanded the workweek into the weekend. Many people on vacations stay tethered to the office via e-mail, Twitter, and other methods. So here’s what you should be asking about your online offerings: are you making it worth your members’ time to participate in your Webinars, social networking discussions, online courses, and otherwise engage in the online activities you make available to them? Better make sure. The report suggests that people are soon going to have had it with all this and start cutting back. Don’t give your members reasons to cut you out.   With the exception of four major newspapers (the NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal), Sunday metros and small weeklies, most US print newspapers will be gone in five years. The report asks, "How will the changing delivery of content affect the quality and depth of journalism?" What opportunities for you does this open up? How can your organization make up for any lost quality or depth of journalism? Where are the gaps that you can fill?   How transparent are you? How do you reassure your members that their online presence with you is safe? "Our latest Digital Future study found that almost half of users age 16 and older are worried about companies checking what they do online; by comparison, 38% said that the government checking on them is a concern," says Cole. While our members love making purchases and connecting with others online, they’re also very aware that the Web is public, and that information on them is collected with nearly every click. So far that isn’t stopping people from participating in online shopping, surveys, commenting on blogs, reviewing purchase experiences, adding rankings and ratings, etc…. But what are you doing to make sure your members don’t log off your site or your blog or move away from your Facebook or LinkedIn pages thinking, "Darn… I wonder what they’ll do with what I said there?" What are you doing to make sure your members aren’t balking at the information you’re asking for on profile pages? The tipping point for privacy concerns might still be a ways off… but there’s no doubt it’s on people’s minds.   "Even though online outreach to voters continues to expand, and Internet fundraising is a major priority for candidates, the Internet is not yet considered a tool that voters can use to gain more political power or influence," Cole says. Yet they believe this is changing and over the next two election cycles the Internet will become "a major factor in changing the political landscape." Occupy Wall Street, Occupy LA, Occupy [fill in the name of your organization]. Occupy it online. What are the possibilities here? Threats? How can you get ahead of the potential impact of influencing politics online to benefit your organization’s mission? Is there a part you can play in accelerating this trend?   Can you believe online buying is 18 years old? Amazon has flourished and Borders Books has suffered because of it, to cite an example from just one industry. Music CDs have pretty much gone by the wayside as fans download digital files. "Even though purchasing online has already had a significant impact on buying habits, the changes still to come in American purchasing brought by the Internet will no doubt be even more extensive," says Cole. Are you leveraging online buying trends as fully as you could be? Are you taking orders online but still shipping out print books and manuals? Time to think hard about converting to ebooks…. I’ll digress from the report summary here to mention that ebook readers have satisfaction rates of 60% and higher (up to 75% for Kindle buyers). Kindle books outsold print books at Amazon this past year for the first time. It isn’t a fad. It’s a trend. Don’t be the Borders to someone else’s Amazon.   A friend recently recounted his nephew’s description of a college party. "About fifteen people were there. And they were all texting each other. In the same room. My nephew said it was quiet. The quietest party you can imagine. Except for the occasional laughter when someone forwarded something funny or texted something witty. Then there would be a laugh, then another, as the message floated around the room." Yes. In the same room. Texting each other. It’s no joke, it’s true, and the Digital Future’s report validates it. People are spending more time connected online than they do face-to-face. "But is quality being sacrificed for quantity?" Cole asks. "Will those who use social networking services consider them as alternatives to face-to-face involvement with the people in their lives?" In your organization’s social networking and other online environments, how are you ensuring that quality is overriding quantity? That your members are getting something valuable for their time? That they are able to make the same sorts of strong connections online that they make at face-to-face events?   Are you ready for what’s next? "In 2006, YouTube and Twitter had just been born, and Facebook was a toddler. Six years ago, who would have thought that these nascent technologies would become the standard for social communication in 2011? The next major online trend is being developed right now by a new crop of Internet visionaries just waiting to be heard," says Cole. How adaptable is your organization to upcoming change? Because there will be change. And if I were to guess it would be about personalization.  Think about it. You can order M&M candies with any message you want (that will fit their basic specs). You can create your own movies and upload them for the world to see. You can write and publish your own books with a few clicks of the mouse (okay, the publishing part… not the writing part). You can produce your own music and market it to your fans. You can order any number of items with your name or logo on them. So can your members. And the youngest members of our associations have been growing up in a personalized, customized, all about "me" world for a long time. What are you doing to give your members a unique experience in your organization? Do they get the same tee-shirt as everyone else, or do you give them the opportunity to design their own? Do they have a say in the educational sessions available at the national conference? Can they control how and where and for how long they access online learning sessions? Or are you still making them fit your schedule? (Oh, that’s so last century!!) Okay, glad I got that off my chest. At least you can start with these ideas from the Center for the Digital Future and your pal here at aLearning, right?

You’ve heard that old expression, right? Don’t assume anything, it makes an "ass" out of "u" and "me." Haven’t ranted in awhile, but I ran into one of those situations lately that had me swearing under my breath. And it had to do with some of you, probably. Yes, you. You who have your blog comments linked to particular response vehicles. Nothing worse that reading a long post, getting into the point of view expressed in it, drafting and editing a thoughtful response, then starting to submit it when — wait! What’s this?!?!? I have to have a FACEBOOK account or a TWITTER account or another some-such account to post my comment?!??!?!?? PUH-LEEZ!! Has it not occurred to you that not everyone is enamored of Facebook or Twitter? Sure, I’ve heard that it’s business-smart to have these accounts so I can keep my followers up-to-date and all that. I had a Facebook account for awhile, but cancelled it when I read the agreement (do you read those? If not, you really, really, really should), which said they could use what they wanted from what I posted there…. Yes, that’s what it said. It might be my property (my photos, for example), but by using Facebook I was agreeing that they could use it too, whether for advertising or other purposes. Hmmm….. Maybe you’re comfortable with that, but I wasn’t. Personal (and business) choice. I get all that. But it’s not about you or me, remember?!? It’s about your members. Your potential members. Your clients and potential clients. How many are you gagging when you insist they use Facebook or Twitter or another specific account to contact you? Who’s really benefitting? Not you. Not those who want to comment or contact you. The only ones benefitting are Facebook, Twitter, and the like. And who is it you want to benefit? Right. Yes, I’m peeved about this. Anything that drives people to use one specific online tool or application to the exclusion of all others rankles me. Ruffles my feathers. Goes against my grain. Why should someone else decide what tools I should be using? Why should you be deciding the tools your members must use? Just because "everyone" is on Facebook doesn’t mean it should be the only avenue open. Remember what your mother used to say: "If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?" I have nothing against people using Facebook or Twitter, mind you. I just choose not to use it and resent anyone trying to force me into it. I’m guessing some (many?) of your members feel the same way. Even if you’ve surveyed your members and your profile says that 95% have Facebook accounts, that still means 5% of your members don’t have the same access. How will you reach them? How will they reach out to you? Aren’t they as deserving to be "in the loop" as the others? Ah! Now you’re thinking. And thinking it through is always better than assuming anything.

In her reaction to our recent post, "Did You Feel That?" Adrienne Gross said, "One thing that technology can’t really help with though is motivation: ‘I want to do this training.'" I responded by agreeing that we can lead people to training but we can’t make them learn. And that got me thinking about a key difference between corporate training and association training. Our problems are 180-degrees in difference. Corporate trainers struggle to get learners engaged. Often they’re showing up for courses because they’ve been sent, the sessions are mandatory, attendance is required. They aren’t always in the mood. They don’t feel close to the content. Etc. Etc. Trainers spend a lot of time with "WIIFM" — what’s in it for me. Getting learners to connect with the content. Trying to motivate them to engage in the content, to figure out how they’ll eventually apply what they’re learning. Yes, we do some of that. But mostly we’re struggling with getting the trainers — usually our volunteer content leaders — to get out of the way of our members, who generally show up ready and eager to learn. Quite the opposite of corporate trainees. Corporate trainees attend sessions that the company pays for. Even when that training requires travel, the employee’s costs are covered, at minimum via a per diem. Our members, on the other hand, consciously choose to attend our learning events, whether they be online or face-to-face. Think about that a second. They’ve paid to be a member. Now they’re paying a registration fee to attend an event. Sometimes they even pay to travel to that event. That’s motivation, don’t you think? So if we’re sending people out the door frustrated that they didn’t learn anything, that’s our bad. Our very bad. (And the topic of a different post entirely.) What are we doing right that corporations seem to be getting wrong? Why are our learners showing up so ready to learn while corporate learners are reluctant to show up at all? What can corporate trainers learn from us? Probably a lot more than what I’ll describe here, but we’ll consider it a start. In no particular order, we design sessions that: Deliver what people need to know and do so they can make better decisions and perform tasks more efficiently. We don’t assume we know what they need — we find out from them what they need to know, and work from there. Leverage various experience levels, so those newer in the profession learn from those who have more experience and do so in an environment where organizational, reporting hierarchy doesn’t matter. We know our sessions will be filled with individuals from across the professional spectrum, and do our best to make that combination work for the session, rather than against it. Create online and in-person environments where social, informal learning is a natural outflow from the session. We expect attendees to meet others and learn from them in the hallways, during breaks and meals, and often well beyond the session itself. Start with the assumption that people want the latest information, research, strategies, tactics, tools, etc. They want an edge over their competition and know we can give them that edge. Never mind that those competitors are often sitting in the same room! Encourage an atmosphere of open discussion, networking, debate, sharing, and exchange. Our members have discovered over time that often they get the answer to a problem in the least-expected way — usually outside of the formal training situation. Appreciate the value of social interaction. Sharing meals, taking tours, and participating in other activities together isn’t just about "team building." It’s about relaxing enough in the presence of others that you can feel comfortable sharing your problems, asking necessary questions, and generally letting your hair down. Corporate trainers out there: yes, you probably think you’re doing these things already. But you’re not. The next time you attend a professional development event offered through an association, pay close attention. What made you want to attend this event? What about your decision can you incorporate into your corporate offerings? Do you need to change a venue? Re-order your agenda? When were you particularly engaged? Why? What was being done that you can steal and use in your own sessions? Do you need to change-up your facilitators? Tools? Training techniques? Where were you when you picked up a particularly helpful bit of information, advice, skill, or other nugget of learning? Do you provide that sort of interaction in the corporate training sessions you design? How can you do that? Did your attention flag at some point? When? Why? Do your corporate training session attendees suffer in a similar way? What do you wish had been done during that session to re-engage you? How could you elevate the engagement in your sessions, based on what you experienced at the PD session? When did you feel most comfortable? Why? What about the session’s environment or facilitation or other aspect made you feel this way? How can you integrate that into your own corporate sessions? Generally, you can approach this from a lot of directions. Here’s one more (a bonus suggestion!): if you were to put a pricetag on the corporate sessions you offer, what do you think your employees would be willing to spend on them? Why? Would they be willing to pay membership dues, then a registration fee and travel costs on top of that us to attend? What can you be doing differently so they would? Answer this question, and you’ll likely solve much of that  "motivation" problem that Adrienne mentions and that  plagues so much of corporate training these days.

Yes, aLearning has been distracted these past few months with some non-blog projects… so although a few of these resource items are a little older than a month or two, they’ve been re-vetted and we think they’re still worth your attention. LMS Resources The most popular topics on this blog are those on LMSes. They get the most initial hits, and some posts that even date back a few years are still getting a lot of attention. Having said that, here are a few excellent resources — in no particular order — if you’re trying to decide whether to get an LMS or not. First, Jon Aleckson blogged on the topic here: http://managingelearning.com/2012/02/10/association-lms-yes-or-no/ And you can get a copy of their free white paper, "When is the Right Time to Adopt an LMS" by filling out a quick form here: http://www.webcourseworks.com/adopting-an-lms-white-paper DigitecInteractive’s white paper on selecting an LMS includes an example timeline for the process: http://www.knowledgedirectweb.com/company1/content/296/8-Steps-to-Selecting-Your-Association_LMS.pdf Social Learning An oldie but goodie: "Social Learning Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Does!" from Jane Hart’s "Learning in the Social Workplace" blog. Moving from "Command and Control" to "Encourage and Engage" is sometimes harder than we think. Her charts contrasting these provide a great checklist: http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2011/09/12/social-learning-doesnt-mean-what-you-think-it-does/ Wondering why you set up a social learning network but nobody’s participating? Get some help from Mary Arnold’s Learning Solutions article, "The Human Factor: Creating Opportunities to Participate in Social Learning."  Read it here: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/492/the-human-factor-creating-opportunities-to-participate-in-social-learning Mobile Learning Kineo has released a terrific white paper on getting started in mobile learning. "Terrific" because it not only provides the "what" you need to know and do, but examples as well — including images of various applications. Go here to download your copy: http://www.kineo.com/us/elearning-reports/mobile-learning-guide-part-1-designing-it-right.html General Topics Avectra’s been offering a Book of the Month, delivering excerpts on all kinds of topics. If you’re not getting the alerts about these, here’s where to sign up: http://www.avectra.com/association-management-resources/resources/book-of-the-month.php Gotta love the idea of using the "speed dating" technique at a conference or workshop for changing up the same-old, same-old format. How would you incorporate it? (Not my idea, I confess… my source was this: http://blog.hansdezwart.info/2012/02/01/speed-dating-at-the-2012-learning-technologies/)

Regular aLearning blog readers have probably noticed a sudden drop in activity here. No worries! We’re fine. But we are involved in some other areas these days and providing up-to-date insight on association-related elearning topics hasn’t been at the top of the list, sorry to say. Previous posts on various topics continue to garner so many hits daily that the blog will sit, waiting and ready for new posts, when the time comes. In the meantime, please know that the aLearning Fundamentals tutorials — always free and never requiring registration — are still live and will remain available here: http://www.ellenbooks.com/alearning.html And the book aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning also continues to be available for purchase (in print, PDF, or e-book format) via http://www.lulu.com. Just click the image or button on the left for more information on how to order your copy. As ever, you’re welcome to send me an e-mail directly via the link on the left (below "Contact Ellen" on the left). I appreciate your support!  

My apologies! After promising that the tutorials and resources available at the aLearning Fundamentals site (an extension of ellenbooks.com) would continue to be available while the blog is on hiatus, my hosting service has dumped all its clients. I’m in the process of shifting the site to another hosting service which will take some time. If you need access to any of the tutorials or other resources before they’re back up and running, please contact me directly (my e-mail link is in the sidebar) and I’ll do what I can to get the materials to you another way. Hope you’re all enjoying a great summer!

Not my choice, but the days for ordering e-versions of aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning are numbered.* The e-reader enabled versions and possibly the PDF version will no longer be available after the end of this month. If you’ve been putting off purchasing the aLearning Trail Guide, don’t wait much longer. You can order here. For info on this book and others, click here. The print version will continue to be available (with its accompanying postage and shipping fees) for the foreseeable future. *Lulu.com has decided to no longer support DRM, which provides certain protections for the way e-versions are made available.