My changing tagging strategy

There are five main themes to the work I will be doing while completing my OpenPhd. And each of these themes need to be tagged so they can be referenced by myself and others. The five tags I will use with be;

• openphd - resources for people doing an open phd or watching others do an open phd. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/openphd - this is a more personal tag for how I am referencing online materials.
• nophd - resources for people doing a networked and open phd or watching others do a networked and open phd. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/onphd - this is a community tag for the community of practice forming around a networked and open phd.
• solution-arch - solution architecture resources. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/solution-arch
• mba-arch - solutions architecture for the mba / business person resources. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/mba-arch
• learner-arch - learning systems architecture resources. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/learner-arch

Why would someone want to follow these tags?

1. they are a follower or contributor to the open phd movement (yes, I'm calling it a movement)
2. they are a solutions architect, systems architect or enterprise architect or aspiring to be any of these roles and want to learn more or have another view on architectural issues.
3. they are a business person wanting to gain a greater understanding of technology architecture, business processes, the vocabulary and best practices within this realm.
4. they are a learning systems architect or educational technologist or aspiring to be either of these roles and want to learn more or have another view on architectural issues.

7 releases in the next 8 months

2011 is going to be a significant year for my consulting practice. About 10 years ago I made the conscious decision to complete a Masters of Education in Information Technology. I really wanted to bring together my software development career with my teaching career. I really wanted to shift my living to building educational technology and create educational content. I really think this year is going to be an accumulation of that decision, and that really excites me. I believe I need to cerebrate! I will celebrate each accomplishment as it is completed. And when I say completed, it has gone live on the internet and is available for consumption.

The first of these releases is a project that started late in 2009. I was asked to come in and assist with the initial design, architecture and partner selection for a peer based video assessment site for language learners. So, one year later the site goes live and I believe we have done something quite innovative when it comes to peer based mentorship and creating a community of practice platform. I believe the innovation is mostly around the use of video within the site and within the peer-mentorship practice. This is a beautiful site focused on professional development of teachers, put together for AIM language Learning and built by AppNovation Technologies. As a further endorsement of my work and now the site is going live I have been asked to do follow-up work to assess the depth of learning and value proposition being provided by the site. This is exactly the kind of work I was hoping to achieve when I brought my technology back-ground together with my love of learning.

Home bases and Outposts

Recently I have been thinking about how social media and hosted content relate to the organization, a companies internet presence and personal projects. This has come up for two reasons; 1. thinking about the brand and community building for a client and 2. because I have started my OpenPhD. What's important is where the content gets hosted within these realms; do you have it on a company or personal website that you are in control? Or do you put it on a shared service like facebook, wikipedia, blogger, etc... This decision is well articulated in the idea of home bases and outposts.

For organizations / companies the home base is important so you don't lose control over your content and your brand. Content stored elsewhere can be moved, more easily copied and deleted. The policies around your content are not yours, they are the policies from the shared service. Putting content on the shared service makes sense when you are wanting to attract attention and drive traffic back to your own site. Usually, the content put on the shared service is a copy of what you have stored on your own site(s). Essentially the outposts attract attention and drive traffic back to your business (or home base).

For myself attempting the significant endeavour of an OpenPhD needs to have an online presence I have control over the content, how it is referenced and the ability to add and alter the software features around my content. This was apparent when I wanted to use delicious to bookmark my readings and references but couldn't reference delicious bookmarks in my Wikiversity profile due to the platform not supporting JavaScript. So, in the end I will build up my personal website to be my home base and refer to all other locations as outposts.