a test of the new activity feed

[Skip Zilla]

So glad Laura's in an experimental mode. I sense new, cool, and handy Web applications are on the Fireside Learning horizon. So keep alert folks!

[Skip Zilla]

a test of a comment to a test group discussion

[Skip Zilla]

a comment related to the testing of a new activity feed: Just prior to posting this second comment to the test discussion, I changed the wording (by one word) the discussion title. Has this change generated a change to the item listed in the activity feed?

[Laura Gibbs]

Aha, this is good, Skip - I needed a Group thing.
I have no idea how frequently YahooPipes updates the feed - I'm guessing not more often than every 30 minutes.
I tried so hard to find something to filter it for groups only, but there is nothing in the feed that lets me do that.
I'm going to keep poking around - it seems very strange to me that the Group activity is not part of what Fireside calls "Latest Activity" but it shows up in the RSS feed (I wouldn't know, since I only use the feed). So, we'll see.
This is good to have as a test, because you created this in a Group ... and it must be a Group I joined at some point (the Groups totally baffle me), since I am able to reply!
:-)

[Skip Zilla]

Group activity is posted in FL's "Recent Activity." What I would like to see, as you say, a feature on FL's front page which lists Group activity as Forum activity is displayed. That would be a much more interesting prospect, which opened "grouping" up to more inventive uses.

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Skip, I thought about this a LOT this morning... I think some of the people who have used Groups have been doing that out of a desire to categorize things, rather than to create separate sub-communities.

There are some powerful tools in the Categories feature of Discussions. I'm guessing that might help sort some of this out...

Anyway, I learned a lot about all of this - for my new Aesop ning, I want to encourage people to create 'study groups' (for local homeschooling initiatives, etc.), and now I see much more clearly how that could work. I had not really understood any of that before! :-)

[Skip Zilla]

These hands-on learnings and thoughts of yours are compelling, Laura. I will readily admit that the initiation of the Groups I did had little to do with people already sharing some interest or experience which identified them as a group; for me as a Group initiator it was mostly about categorizing a theme of a repository for what would follow in posted discussions and media. The categorization scheme of the Forum left me unsatisfied, so I "misread/misused" Ning's Group feature for what I wanted to accomplish (a long known way to innovate, BTW). If, however, you've learned a better way, more consistent with Ning intentions for various of its features, please inform me (us). I'm game to re-do what's been done. Thanks, Laura.

[Laura Gibbs]

I am so sympathetic to software developers trying to build FLEXIBLE software like Ning, where people can adapt it to their needs. It is such a huge challenge... partly because the goal is no doubt for us to think up ways to use the software that were never even envisioned by the software designers themselves!

It's like HTML itself - I love the story of how that was just invented as a way to share tabular data electronically... and lo and behold it becomes the design language for content on the Internet at large, in a colossal way nobody ever planned for! Incredible!

I added some questions about groups to the Survey that might be illuminating... we shall see.

[Skip Zilla]

Is it possible to completely write the code using a Web programming language, Web services external to Ning, and the Ning API to implement a networking website on a Ning server which is completely original in design. I realize that doing so defeats the purpose of having a pre-designed, ready-to-customize graphically, and simple to set-up for use Website. I guess I should try to find the answer myself at Ning's developers' ning; just thought you might have a ready answer.) Developing flexibility is one's own software is the best way to get it if you know how to do it.

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Skip, that is where you go far far far beyond me... I am basically a content person, and just tinker with web programming so far as it allows me to create and syndicate content... QUICKLY. Since I am always pressed for time, I've never actually learned a programming language (not since Fortran back in high school, ha ha)... and my perpetual quest is for "generator" tools that are like metasoftware, I guess you could call it, where the software creates the software you need, if you see what I mean.

YahooPipes is a great example - I use their software to build my little program.
RotateContent.com (the tool my student built for me) is another great example - it is a tool that writes the javascript for me, based on my specs... without me having to knwo a line of javascript!

I'm not the kind of person who would ever take the time to actually learn Flash, for example... but I love the way Respondus's StudyMate will generate a Flash-based Glossary tool for me, based on the data I supply.

I'm all about supplying the content (data)... and getting the computers to do all the work, ha ha, so I don't have to! :-)

[Skip Zilla]

This is a great strategy--use the higher level constructs--when we don't want to narrow our focus to high specialization, unless that is the bag of tricks we want clipped to our work belts. The wonderful prospect of the twenty-first century emphasis on exploring our multi-intelligenced selves can't be realized if we are solely instrumental in what we offer and do for others. Your personal discoveries, gained through exploring the humanities of the ages with great excitement and engagement on your part, are greatly valuable to me (us). Within that same thought is the knowledge that there are many who are captive to the necessity of pushing cash-register keys for years, who will never know how gifted they are inherently and how diminished we are not to have experienced the fulfillment of the promise of their giftedness.

[Laura Gibbs]

I think about this all the time with my students: when they go through the cookie-cutter routine of taking tests in their college classes, very rarely writing anything, and almost NEVER writing anything creative... well, they end up feeling like they are cogs in the machine, not meant to do anything more than that. So if they can do something wild and liberating and MEMORABLE in my class, then that makes me very happy! :-)

[Ian Carmichael]

I'm just going to watch and be amazed - watch the geekmeister at work! (Pardon the sexism, I have no German, just flecks of vocabulary.)