Reflecting on Tech and Tools

There has been a fair amount of discussion in my twitter stream and blog-o-sphere regarding the tech and tools we use to develop and deliver things. Things? Well the discussions I picked up on were in my eLearning universe, but the discussion applies to the tech and tools I use in my music, video, and multimedia worlds as well.

Here is the gist:

My 7 Year old son showing tools from the tool boxThe Man: “We should adopt this tool to:” -Or- “Purchasing this tool will enable anybody in your organization to:” -Or- “This tool is blocking or limiting our ability to:” manage – deliver - create effective, engaging _______ (elearning programs. multimedia programs, video programs, websites, online games, meetings, brochures, signs etc.)

The developer, artisan, artist: “Hey Man, tools do not create and design effective, engaging _______; creative, innovative developers, artisans, artists do.

And then the endless metaphors start: “Getting a power saw to replace a hand saw does not improve the design of the house” etc.

I, like many, have been thorough a lot of these tools and tech debates. The first eLearning (CBT) program that I produced was developed with HyperCard stacks. I clearly remember the discussions at my media production company in the late 90s - “why would anybody want to watch small choppy video on line?” And then the Avid vs. Media 100 followed by the Avid vs. Final Cut camps (still out there).

On the audio and music side – whew, Analog sythns and 30 IPS ¼ inch tape w splice blocks to MIDI (amazingly still around) & the Amiga (heck that was on the video side too – the video toaster!) to mixing and creating “in the box” with Pro-tools, Logic, Albeton Live etc. or even Garage Band for that matter.

Now I can really create something!The evolutionary cycle in technology and how people consume information is ever changing. As a result, we developers, artisans and artists need to constantly assess the tools in our toolbox to be sure that we can “ship our art” (to quote Seth) through the appropriate distribution channels.

In the early 90’s as we migrated from analog to digital, the emergent lesson I (and many) relearned (from the renaissance artists?) was this: Conceive, design, and create your concept, your story - your art. Identify your distribution channel or channels. Then identify and employ the tools required to produce and deliver.

Nothing earth shattering here. Simple. Yet we have all fallen into the trap of either becoming overly comfortable or even dependent on our tools, or the opposite; the habitual early adopter, grabbing the latest and greatest for the sake of having the latest and greatest.

The tools you use to create your art should be comfortable and appropriate for the task. The danger is becoming too comfortable. When you start creating by rote based on the tools you are comfortable with, that should be a warning sign.

PowerPoint

A classic example of this is the recent dust-up regarding PowerPoint.

How PowerPoint is used, or misused, is the real issue. PowerPoint is a tool that has seeped into our collective “think” - our culture. Many have become so comfortable with PowerPoint that they begin to create and think based on their comfort level with the tool, both as creators and consumers of information. The reality is that some concepts are more complex than a single slide info-graphic followed by 3 slides of bullets. This was as true with overhead transparencies or six synchronized slide projectors as it is with PowerPoint. Many have let the tool dictate the art and the distribution channel, instead of utilizing the tool to serve the art and access the channel.

The Learning Management System

In the eLearning world one of the hot discussion points this month regarding tools and tech has been the future and even the usefulness of the LMS (Learning Management System) for providing effective learning in the enterprise. Below are some highlights. Take the time to read them (if you haven’t already). No matter your stance, whether you are an executive or L&D professional or don’t even know what an LMS is, these discussions apply to enterprise 2.0 and any effective management discussion.

What is the Future of the LMS? and A Transition Path to the Future - Jane Hart

LMS is no longer the Center of the Universe and Identifying a Collaboration Platform - Harold Jarche

A case for the LMS? - Clark Quinn

A Defense of the LMS (and a case for the future of Social Learning) - Dave Wilkins

Stand alone LMS is Still Dead - Dan Pontefract

My 2 cents: Learning management systems were initially designed as enterprise facing systems, to schedule, deliver and then track who attends or views training or learning events. For the person looking to learn, the LMS is often a hassle and the butt of jokes. But corporations need the data. In compliance, for now and the near future, those check marks are needed. I think the LMS will rapidly evolve to be a tool that both collects the data for compliance and is a learner-facing platform that includes social and networked learning. But very often an LMS is an example of an expensive tool that is implemented for the wrong reasons. The majority of the time, the clients I work with do not need an LMS.  Nicely designed web sites utilizing an existing SharePoint platform, or setting up a site with something as straightforward as Wordpress would be a far more effective and efficient way to deliver their learning programs.

Flash vs HTML 5

This discussion has been fun to view and participate in and is relevant across all online communication worlds. Here are some great discussions from the eLearning POV

The Begning of Long Slow Death of Flash - Tony Karrer

HTML 5 Let the Games Begin! - Craig Weiss 

Is HTML5 Ready for eLearning Development? -  Yogesh Agarwal

My 2 cents: This has to do with distribution channels. Mobile is here to stay. That is a fact. In my opinion, this is an area where the developer, artisan, artist has to be nimble and ready to move. I am not going to defend Flash to the end, and I am not abandoning it. HTML 5 is gaining traction so we need to get on board. But also be ready to develop native apps for mobile devices that pull content. This is not a situation to wait and see what is left when the dust settles. The music industry taught us a great lesson. If you keep getting angry and saying wait, you are going to get left behind wondering how some other industry defined how you deliver your art.

I don’t think there is a winner here yet. But no matter, one of your favorite tools will evolve to export to either Flash or HTML 5 (or what they may evolve into).

Just don’t be too comfortable and wait.

Filtering – Clearing and Breaking through the Clutter. Part 1

When I was the co-director and instructor for a High school recording studio camp, one of my favorite topics when covering the “Art of Mixing” was using EQ and dynamic filters to shape the sound of the project. Filtering out the unwanted frequencies and boosting the frequency ranges that help bring the sonic image to life.

This came to mind when reading Tony Kerrar’s blog post Top 10 eLearning Predictions for 2010 waaay back in January. For his 10^th prediction he asked for reader input. On that list of possible # 10’s – Information Overload: “In a world of full connectivity to all information and all people, how do you handle filtering?”

Well this took me down a very fulfilling personal learning path.

Up until January, my personal information filter consisted primarily of RSS feeds and portals like eLearning Learning and a personal portal I set up on Alltop. I boosted key information “tonalities” by following the recommendations from blogs that I learned to trust.  In this way I followed the itch in my brain regarding filters and discovered some additional, and now trusted thinkers that have expanded my personal knowledge network (PKN). Linking from Tony’s blog I found more great posts on the topics of knowledge filtering, crowd sourcing and more.

First, I came across the Innovation Leadership Network blog, written by Tim Kastelle, John Steen and Mark Dodgson. Tim Kastelle’s post Filtering, Crowdsourcing and Innovation lead me to another one of Tim’s posts Personal Aggregate, Filter & Connect Strategies – which led me to Harold Jarche’s excellent blog and post PKM: aggregate, filter, connect. I’ve included Harold’s graphic from his post.

These series of posts really helped me focus both my thinking and my approach to my personal knowledge network or learning e-space. (Thanks all y’all!) Changes I have made include engaging twitter as both a filter and for connecting to others of similar interests - and of course, starting to blog again. I have not yet seriously explored using social bookmarking sites yet – that’s next in the list to see if it works for me.

When using audio filters to shape the sound of your mix, often those filters need to be adjusted as the mix progresses. One technique is to “sweep” the frequencies for either an offending tonality that needs to be removed or magic tonalities that lift the mix from the speakers to the sound space that envelopes each listener. I have found that this technique is also required in my personal information filtering process. The filter needs to be adjusted and tweaked so that you can find new tonalities and remove the ones that are clutter.

Now, the filter topic affects me and many of us working, creating and living with media from another side, how do we gain access to “filters” to get our ideas and creation noticed? This is an obvious issue for my micro label, and is a big topic in marketing and publishing. And this will be the subject of Filtering – Clearing and Breaking through the Clutter Part 2.

What are some of the techniques you are using to clear the clutter as you aggregate, filter and connect?

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Shout outs

I mentioned Harold Jarhce’s blog, Tim Kastelle’s blog and Tony Karrer’s blog in this post. If you haven’t already, go check them out and follow them on twitter. You’ll be glad that you did.

I also mentioned the recording camp I used to co-direct. This camp is still being run by my dear friend and business partner Mark Bunce. It is an excellent opportunity for high school students to perform, record, produce, and often write as many songs as they can pull off in an intense week in a studio equipped with the latest Pro Tools rig and one of the best microphone collections in the Midwest. The kids not only get to work on both sides of the studio glass, they learn even more through creative collaboration writing, performig, recording and mixing the tunes.

20 Years Ago Today... remember?

Great Sadness.

20 years ago I was a graduate student studying music composition at BGSU in NW Ohio. During the months of April and May, I got very caught up in the events that were then transpiring in Beijing, in particular, Tiananmen Square. How exciting and engaging it was to watch the brightest and bravest of a nation, the majority of whom were young college and graduate students like myself, staging such an incredible, peaceful demonstration for change in their country's government.

Remember, George HW was still president, and that was after 8 years of Reagan. Here in the US, it appeared to me at the time anyhow, that people of my age were only passionate about MBAs – Self- fulfillment, attaining things. And in full disclosure self- fulfillment and attaining things (but not MBAs) were things I sought and still sort of seek, but not something I was/am passionate about.

Every day I tuned-in to watch the demonstrations. It was gripping. A million people! The best and brightest of a generation - and they were going to do it! They were going to bring down the repressive Chinese government. I was excited. I was proud of them. How it impacted my mood – "look at these folks" I thought,  "Look at this movement – growing and evolving on the spot - no central leadership – an organic energy growing and spreading."

T-shirt produced by U-Chicago Chinese Student Union

June 4 through June 8 – what a crushing few days. Literally of course, as the Chinese government chose to wipe out the best and brightest of a generation. “Tank man” – such an inspiring figure – most likely executed with the other what - 3000 killed?

Needless to say I was devastated. That seems like a selfish statement when I look at it typed out on the page - it is.

But I was.

I can go on - I can ask, as many do; what was the ultimate impact those million demonstrators had in their country? Was it worth it? In China it has been written out of their history. The current generation of similar age really knows nothing about it, unless they sneak out on the internets outside of their own country. – sigh.

Back of the same shirt. Thanks to my bro Dave for the shiAnyhow.

I was at the time writing a piece in support of the demonstrators in China. It was being written for my then girl friend (and now wife) to perform as a solo bassoon piece. Of course as an electronic music geek, I was looking to make it an ‘electronic’ bassoon piece. I was working with IVL pitch rider at the time, and the piece ultimately was developed for the bassoon with IVL pitch rider and digital sampler (quite the piece of gear at the time) with custom sound design and samples. It eventually became a lament. Here is a live recording of the piece perfromed at a festival in 1990. It seems horribly dated when I listen to it now - doesn’t really hold up.

But at the time it was a true expression of my feelings- my grief.

Grief I find I still have today.

"Quintets: Albright - Bolcom" and the Long Tail

AMP Recordings new release "Quintets: Albright - Bolcom

OK. so it is all the rage these days to debunk the Long Tail. But for a record (yes, they are still records, even if it is a digital only release!) like the one my label AMP Recordings has just released, the Long Tail is crucial.

No one really gets rich in the classical recording field, and this is modern chamber music to boot - so the idea of a "hit" was never really viable. (Although I must say there are exceptions, like the almost fairy tale story of the Grand Valley State recording of Steve Riech's Music for 18 Musicians - but I dare say no one got rich). So what the Long Tail does for a micro label like ours - who has partnered with artists to create a product, is that it makes it available to people all around the world.

When we released our first recording (Scarlatti Harpsichord Works) in 1996, it was quite a struggle to make it available to people. See, classical chamber music is in of itself a niche - and there are a ton of niches with the chamber music niche. There are number of people in the world who would love to get there hands on what was an obscure recording of Scarlatti Harpsichord works. The trick was (and is) letting that niche know that the recording exists and making it somewhat easy to find and buy.

Chamber Music - Lots of niches within niches

There are infinitely more tools (at very low cost) for accomplishing this than there was 10 - 12 years ago - social networking, search engines, blogs etc, and of course for music, digital aggregators like CD Baby et al, but clearing through the clutter to get your niche's attention can still be a challenge. (We are going to re-release that recording digitally because we know someone in Hungary or Japan or Indiana is working up a Scarlatti Harpsichord piece and would love to hear what is on this record)

Often the scenario for chamber music releases on small labels was to hope to sell some, and then either store or give away the rest. I will get some push back on that, but it is essentially true.

So we have a definite Long Tail plan for our newest release. We have a number of things going for us I think. First; the ensemble, Brave New Works Rocks. Second; the pieces are fantastic and are by contemporary composers - and, as far as we know, they have not been commercially recorded before. The works are William Bolcom's Piano Quintet and William Albright's Clarinet Quintet.

We are releasing the record on CD (available now, you should buy it) and as a digital release. We are doing the traditional marketing stuff (albeit on a shoe string), sending it to radio for play (yes, we are still buying into terrestrial radio) and sending it out for review in both print and blogs. We are in the process of creating a dedicated myspace and facebook page for the release. We actually submitted for consideration for a Grammy and it made through the Committee phase. (Any NARAS members out there - give it a listen!). We have realistic expectations, we are excited that a couple thousand Grammy voters will see it on the list.

From the micro lable's point of view, the Long Tail is a real and quantifiable phenomenon. From the retailer and major label POV, maybe not. But is has made it possible for micro lables to sell a 1000 copies of their release, instead of just storing them.

So, I will post as things progress to see how our release does in the Long Tail.

Thanks Mr. Patry

"Copyright law has abandoned its reason for being: to encourage learning and the creation of new works. Instead, its principal functions now are to preserve existing failed business models, to suppress new business models and technologies, and to obtain, if possible, enormous windfall profits from activity that not only causes no harm, but which is beneficial to copyright owners. Like Humpty-Dumpty, the copyright law we used to know can never be put back together again: multilateral and trade agreements have ensured that, and quite deliberately."
- William Patry. from his final post announcing the end of his personal blog.

I will miss Patry's insight into the ever crumbling world of copyright. I am by no means an expert, but I run into copyright issues on a weekly basis, as does many of us, and have had an "academic" interest in copyright issues since the late 90's.

While Patry's wasn't the only source of opinion out there and I wasn't always 100 percent in agreement (and admittedly a fair number of posts were over my head in terms of the legal speak) I found his blog a great source of info that I checked daily and it lived up to what a great blog should be. Thanks Mr. Patry.