I just had a cool idea, when emailing a friend, (and I mean literally *Just*.  I emailed out to him a quick distillation of my thoughts, hit send, and then thought "I have to blog this!"), so I thought I would put it here. 

I have a history here of pontificating, ruminating, on Web 2.0, blogging, and spirituality.  And there have been all types of implementations.

Many times, I've thought to setup a SCOOP style site - for either Skillful Means posts, or for Integral posts.

However, at this point, Zaadz - which already has a bunch of other features that a SCOOP site wouldn't have - needs to do TWO things - and then there the NEED for a SCOOP style site, is made completely superfluous.

Ability to search blogs by tags (does Zaadz already have this?), and then ability to RATE a blogpost.

Most of my blogposts are mediocre.  I accept that. 

BUT

Some of my blogposts are excellent!! 

I know that is true as well. 

If people can RATE a blogpost, and you can lookup a blogpost based on recommendations, ratings, and taggings - well, then why do you need a SCOOP site?  You already have the functionality that, say, DailyKos is so useful for, right?

So - how is that coming!?



also posted at Zaadz

Good post from elearnspace.

Cross-institution studies, informal learning (in the form of a portfolio, and other online activities are kept in separate containers. For education, an identity system should be one that allows users not only to authenticate, but to bring the content of their learning activities into a space each individual controls. In this regard, I find portfolios to be of greater value than a simple ID system.

This should be the same in practice networks.  Those who are practicing ILP, or Body For Life, or completing daily advaita lessons - all of these fundamental activities - and any associated learning/online trail - should be controlled BY the individual, through their own identity and associated attributes - then these would be relayed to any application/systems through an agreed upon open protocol.

I've had this discussion - or at least posted a couple of comments about eportfolio functionality - to Brian Johnson at zaadz, previously. 

This type of networked "skill and growth" portfolio - we'll see if there is a market for it, and, if there is, who will be the first social network to enact it.

From Dave Pollard.



I hope for something like this for spiritual subjects, as well as other expertise.  But this is the ultimate Skillful Means project, with a peer to peer overlay.  The only additional proposal I would add, is to add a "satisfaction report", similar to the 360 degree assessment model. 

At this point, the online community I want has the following elements:

a. Personal blogging - text/audio/video.  Ability for community to rate posts.
b. Personal Profiles
c. Rating of blogging/expertise
d. Events scheduling
e. Feedback mechanism, on events, practices, experts.

You can pretty much get all of the above, expect feedback, through SCOOP, and maybe a couple of blogging platforms.

What are others insights on this?

This will be useful - chalk one more up to immediate social gratification.

Not only will I be able to create and Integral Feed - I can also show headlines on the site.

Of course, this is similar to the current Integral Feed I have - but from the same interface I read from - Google Reader.

Also based on tags you develop for each feed, which is great as well.

I came across this article on personal web applications, that gathers in one place all the ways you can keep the data that is important to your life online

Pretty much everything:

Email?  Gmail, Yahoo Mail, etc, etc.

Calendar? Try Kiko - or stay with Yahoo Calendar.

Simple Word documents?  Writely

Spreadsheets?  How about NumSum?

PowerPoint app?  How about S5?

Full office suite?  Well, you have ThinkFree and gOffice. 

Want one place to read all the blogs and news items you are intrested in, through RSS feeds?  Well, you have a million of course.  Google Reader, or Bloglines, or Kinja.

How about a very good personal organizer?  This is where Backpack comes in.

This article also pointed me to Barnraiser.  This looks like a REALLY good social networking application, that includes events, degrees of separation, interests,  and both your own blog, and reading others blogs, upload files, and a personal wiki!

The point here is, that over 90% - maybe more - of what a person does with his life in terms of data and productivity, can now be done online.

You know there has been all this discussion of whether Google, or Yahoo would come out with an office application, and "take on" Microsoft.  (And notice, nowhere did I mention Microsoft in ANY of the above applications, or actually anything installed on your desktop.)  And for myself, I always thought that it would be stupid to challenge Microsoft in terms of Office.  Office is a great product, and always has been.  Notice that Office is still an amazing seller on Apple machines, when there really is no NEED for it, per se.

But the truth is, the online world, and the various web applications are ALREADY taking on Microsoft.  If Google, or Yahoo, don't get in the game, or BUY one of the above better applications  -

they'll be left behind.  So they have to get moving, there really isn't much of a choice for them.

Also, what this means, in terms of Vince's Leapfrogging Dangers article. With a 100 dollar computer, you NOW have full, unfettered, and free access to a full office suite, a scheduler, you can create a network, read all your personalized news, blog, be a writer, form groups and advocate, improve the state of the world with your own wiki, or keep up a wiki of a subject you are interested in -

The future is HERE and the future is NOW.  For anyone on the planet who has an internet connection and a computer.  (Of course, that is easy to say, isn't it?  For billions, having a computer never even enters the consciousness of the person.)

It will be interesting to see what forms these applications take for the future, as they improve.

This is a bit technical, but the "standard" specfications for e-portfolios has been released.

Once this specification is combined with what coolmel calls algorhythmic match-making services (and remember, the matchmaking doesn't have to apply only to romance - can apply to friends, jobs, skills)), and then you combine THAT with a deep and comprehensive mode of assessing skills and GAPS in those skills, and then this is combined with open source repositories of knowledge, and then you combine this with sophisticated recommendation engines, and then combine this with Google Maps+GPS,

well,  guess what?  It's a whole new ballgame! 

Imagine your personal e-portfolio being "recommended" for and against.  Imagine querying your interests, passions and skillsets - embedded in your eportfolio - matched up with others who possess similar eportfolios - 60% match?  80% match?  Then you run your Google-GPS against that portfolio, and discover that there is this guy down the street who matches your portfolio interests to 98%?

Should you IM him - through your cell, with your "eportfolio match" being your calling card?

Imagine running that portfolio against a job opening, and coming back with a match on both sides of 75%? 

It's both exhilarating, and quite scary, depending on how this is used.  Definitely Big Brother esque, if we're not careful.

Imagine running your own portfolio against the ideal job - assessing the training you require on the spot, with recomendations FOR that training (numbers, locations, etc) coming up immediately.

It's a a brave new world, again and again,isn't it?




 

Came across this post at World Changing.  A "To-Do" list for a sustainable civilization.

Along with this, I thought I would post a couple of links to eco-careers.  As, hopefully, society is able to engineer a soft transition rather than a hard transition away from fossil fuels, there will be a huge need for competent people in these fields.  You may as well be saving the planet, as part of your career, while at the same time you save your soul.

Ecojobs

Ecoemploy

A little bit of friendly advice to anyone pursuing an environmental career - while absolutely and completely necessary,  it seems the deeper you go into the field, the more research reveals dire and bleak scenarios.  Too often, my "earth first" friends lack any sense of humor, and carry the weight of the world on their shoulders literally.  (Going to an eco-party is somehow reminiscent of going to a Miss Manners party, for some strange reason - maybe someone else can clue me in on why this is...)

At any rate, politically, the first step is a pragmatic, politically and technologically savvy, and economically sound way of weaning the world away from oil.  This requires as much political, marketing and communication skill, as it does technical skill. 

While not so much focused on the spiritual side, in other respects, Dave Pollard's "How to Save the World" weblog is a must read. Combining community analysis, technical know-how, communication theory and practices, with a passionate advocacy of green/connected values and business, this is a must place to check in, research with, use, for many integral insights and recommendations of how to live in the world.   more »