Two Minute Surveys

Social networks are becoming the dominant way many of us get information online.  Twitter and Facebook are growing at rapid clips and are increasingly becoming go-to areas for the latest information.  These networks are not just about your friends, but also places to get updates from those who work in your industry and areas of specialty.

In this Two Minute Survey, we ask you to give us some feedback on how you use social networks along with how you manage the flow of information coming from these networks.

Microsoft released Office 2010 for Windows this past June and, more recently, a major new version for the Mac. Productivity suites such as these have been a staple software package for years; Office is almost 20 years old. There have been new releases and upgrades to Office, but with the availability of web-based applications that offer collaborative authoring features, we are wondering if you are planning on upgrading to new versions of traditional software or exploring new options.

flickr creative commons image by Kenneth Pinto http://flic.kr/p/4zxQbx

Please let us know where you stand in this Two Minute Survey.

The Questions

1) How important are productivity suite packages for your organization?

Many people have to give public presentations as part of their work.  These may be to fellow colleagues or for a wider audience at a conference.  Microsoft's PowerPoint software has been the de facto standard for many, but new tools and techniques have emerged to improve and enhance our presentations.  As options proliferate and different presentation styles develop, we would like to know where you stand in terms of presentation tools and techniques.   This topic was recently a lively thread on our NMC Subscriber’s email list.   Please take two minutes to tell us what you think about presentations and the tools and techniques to make them and engage an audience.

 The questions are:

1) What tool do you primarily use to create your presentations?

2) What strategy or style do you use to improve your presentations?

Smartphones have been a part of our lives for several years. In 2007, when Apple released the first iPhone, the image of the smartphone changed: touch screens, third-party apps, and sensors of location and movement transformed the device from a phone with a keyboard into something wholly new. Now, touchscreen smartphones are available from a number of manufacturers. New operating systems for smartphones, like the Android platform from Google, are opening the market up in some very interesting ways. Recent developments like HP's acquisition of Palm and its WebOS, and Microsoft's emerging Phone 7 platform continue to draw attention to the smartphone market, which is growing year by year as more consumers choose these devices over other mobile phones.

Professional conferences are one of the pillars of many industries, including technology and education. They are events where everyone can talk in the same language while discussing new ideas, technologies and advancements. As "gatherings of the tribe," conferences are the great idea hub where all of our spokes connect together. Nearly all professional technologists and educators attend a conference for professional growth as well as to present their own work. They go for the experience and connections whether it is a small regional meeting or a mega event such as South By Southwest or the NAB conference. 

Maps are one of our oldest forms of visualizing data about the world. One might say we'd be "lost" without them.

flickr creative commons photo by [martin]

From the early web-based Mapquest versions and later when Google Maps came onto the scene followed closely by Google Earth, online mapping and the use of maps by the general public has exploded.  Maps are now a mainstay for mobile computing and other endeavors online line that have a spatial component. The capability enabled by GPS  (Global Positioning System) allows our devices to know where we are in the world, what/who is nearby, and what information is available about places.

For a process of reviewing the NMC "brand" (everything from our logo to our tag line to our web sites) we are asking our community to collectively identify what the NMC represents to them. For example, our tag line has contained three keywords "sparking innovation, learning, & creativity."

Does this describe the NMC for you?

flickr creative commons photo by kagemusha110

In this really quick survey, all we ask for is you to share the three words that come to mind when you think of the NMC. We plan to use this to develop a visual word cloud to see what emerges as the strongest themes.

If you plotted the path of virtual worlds on a Gartner Hype Cycle, 2008 would likely be identified as the "Peak of Inflated Expectations."  Two years earlier, in July 2006, Second Life appeared as the cover story in Business Week and the platform began to capture the public's imagination in ways none of us would have predicted.  (A little history:  The NMC began its early work researching Second Life in late 2005 (8 months before the Business cover story), and established the NMC Campus in Second Life early in 2006.)

Among the NMC Community are certainly a lot of photographers-- from hobbyist to family documenters to professionals-- many them who also share their works online. In this holiday time of year, many of us are either buying cameras for other people or hoping other people may be gifting us new equipment, which is improving all the time.

(image credit: Flickr CC Licensed Photo by Burnt Pixel)

In this survey we hope to learn about the kinds camera equipment people are using most often, but also the ways in which we are sharing what we produce with cameras via online photo sharing sites.

The Questions