Interesting Random Topics

I am overflowing with topics and have not spent the time to update my blog. So here is a very quick dump of the top four.

• AMAZING software products and websites that are free!

• I will not name them all, but here are a few that we have found that are pretty impressive.

• Sketchup from Google. Simple to use 3D design software. Standard version is free.
  
• Maya from AutoDesk. Very high end professional 3D modeling software. Personal learning edition is free.
• Fotoflexer at fotoflexer.com. Online photo editor with great effects. Free.

• Huge governmental focus on solving the education problems in the US ... but will it work?!

• Listened to the state of the union. Touted no child left behind progress. This is good, but is it enough.

• Met with the state government in Utah on an educational bill that was being submitted. Found that it was labeled with one of the governers favorite projects yet had nothing to do with it. Also found that districts had already written their requests prior to the bill even being submitted. All seems very backward.

• We will work hard to find ways to engage in this. Looks like foundations are better for large infrastructure projects. But there are some opportunities with state and federal grants.
  

• Incredible number of non-profit efforts, will they be any better?!

• We (FreshBrain) have been talking to lots of non-profits. ALL of them are trying to do the right thing, but all are going after the same dollars to fund. And there is really no alignment across them.

• There is also a huge challenge in finding enough time to work out a good partnership. Everyone is busy delivering on their mission!
  

• Can we do it differently? I don't yet know, but we will try. Maybe through a joint grant request - we can find the common motivation and benefit.
  

• Continued focus on online protection of minors.

• Read a good article today in the San Jose Mercury News called "NY moves to protect kids from sex offenders online." This is excellent and we will use the information when it is available. Lets hope this happens and others follow.
  

• This is a very important area for us. We will be doing background checks on Advisors and will put in place a large number of protections for the students!
  

On another topic, we are getting close to releasing the new freshbrain.org. Looks like in order to get all of the usability feedback in, it will now be the week of February 11.

Awesome Usability Test

We ran a usability test of the new freshbrain.org on Friday at Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, CA. We had 13 high school age students participate. The usability test ran for just over an hour. The structure was:

• 8 laptops in a conference room
• One or mostly two to a laptop
• Complete three scenarios
• Register
• Explore
• Create a predefined project, their own project and do an activity
• Provide us feedback after each scenario
• Provide us with written feedback at the end
  

The students were AWESOME!! They jumped right in, appeared to totally enjoy the experience and provided us with loads of verbal and non-verbal feedback.

It was amazing how spot on we were. The fact that we built freshbrain.org on a social networking platform was exactly the right choice. They were quick to take advantage of all of the capabilities to share with friends, work together on projects and so on. We also nailed it with the look and feel of the site, the types of technology areas, the types of activities and projects and how we intend to use Advisors.

We did walk away with a number of important enhancement requests. These are mostly building on what we have We will make a couple of changes for this release and the rest on the one planned for March.

• Enhance search - it is how the students want to find everything.
• Make tools easier to find and better connected to activities and projects.
• Provide an internal system (as opposed to email used today) to make and accept friend requests, additions to projects, etc.
• Improve usability of forums.
• Extend capabilities of My FreshBrain to show more about friends, their activities, projects and forum entries.
• Look at adding more non-techie options maybe under Lifestyles (eg. cooking, writing).
• Provide a more in depth set of steps for projects.
  

This was all very validating :)

OLPC Bickering

I am shocked by the bickering that is going on around One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). This all seems more like a political and commercial battle rather than a focus on the kids.

Backing up. OLPC is about trying to provide kids in developing countries with the technology that we all live with every day. It is attempting to level the playing field, give kids in these countries with the tools to learn. To develop. And to hopefully bring along with their generation new opportunity. All a very noble goal.

My fundamental problem with it (separate from whether they picked the right technology - laptop vs cell phone) is that it feels more like a big PR and marketing effort rather than a genuine effort to solve the problem. People that are trying to do something good are not out to make a name for themselves. Not out to get as much press as possible. And not out to win with "their" technological solution. They instead work behind the scenes to make something happen. They lead with solutions and grow it from there. They don't lead with promises.

I have just spent a few minutes and read what is going on with Intel. I have read the comments from Bill Gates on how Microsoft sees it. It looks like what could have been a good thing is coming tumbling down!

Thanks to All - Winners Soon

Thanks to everyone who either participated or visited freshbrain.org during the Video Contest. As you know if you have followed my blog - this is a step along the path to delivering the full site planned for the end of the month.

We have learned a lot with the Graphics and Video Contests.

• The best way to reach folks is in the communities where they spend their time. This is far better than purchasing advertisements on sites such as facebook.
• google analytics is an excellent tool for monitoring the anonymous activity on your site down to where people come from (physical and virtual), how many pages they look at and how long they stay.
• Drupal was the right choice for our platform, as was Solaris and Network.com
• There is a LOT of creativity out there looking for a venue to share it!
• And there is an amazing amount of interest in enhancing the education that our kids get in the area of technology - schools are just not providing enough

We will be announcing the winners of the contest shortly. And we are very busy finishing up the work on the new site!!

Down to the Wire - Video Contest!

Ok, we are down to the wire with our FreshBrain Video Contest. We have a few good submissions but need some more. You have until 11:59pm Pacific Standard Time on Sunday 1/6.

Lets see some creativity!!!

freshbrain.org