The Oprah Winfrey Network Will Be A Learning Experience For Many... Including Us

This morning I am reflecting and flowing positive energy about  Oprah Winfrey's new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) cable network .... and the learning experience that this will be for many stakeholders... including me here at New World Communications...with my own fledgling web television "channel". 

Don't laugh. Not when you see this where this poor African American girl born to a teenage single mother from rural Mississippi has taken her life... and millions of other peoples lives and from all walks of life. Wow, I am filled with joy just thinking and and feeling The Oprah Winfrey Phenomenon.. and the lessons it teaches... Multiple stakeholders...are watching to see what lessons come next...beginning on January 1, 2011. See her December 10th "sneak peek". 

One lesson that I am already getting.. is that in this new chapter...members of Oprah audiences will be encouraged to create their web television "channels"...See her page encouraging viewers to do this. Oprah brilliantly intends to leverage "crowd sourcing" and the power of audience web video to fuel innovation and develop extraordinary content ...that she already knows will "bubble" up. Look what she did with Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and Nate Berkus and some of the members of her own audience.  See my recent  blog about this citing Chris Anderson's TED Talk about the Power of Web Video Fueling Innovation. And also see front-running examples of this coming out of the poorest nations. See my recent post about this...focusing own excellent community-authored television coming out of India. Oprah also got the new learning right when she rapped the entire world around her conversations with Eckhart Tolle and his bestselling book, A New Earth. See it in my New World Virtual Bookstore  (I facilitated an Oprah Book Club group and extended the experience using web conferencing after Oprah modeled the experience using Skype. )

The other lessons to learn from are to be found  in the industry conversations about the new world television business model... that is now taking shape before our very eyes. See Bloomberg BusinessWeek's December 9, 2010 article for example: "Oprah: Will the Queen of Talk Be Cable's Last Word"...by Ronald Grover and Andy Fixmer. Read and learn about how commercial television is paid for and how success is measured and you may discover some of your own lights becoming turned on. 

My own "lights" sure are. The great thing about experiential learning.. is that you can learn from one best practice and practically apply it to another... while putting your own spin on top of that. That's what Oprah even talked about in a recent interview by someone she learned from, Barbara Walters herself. 

So, if this time around we don't learn from Oprah Winfrey about how to create our own "blue ocean"... then our brains must be already dead.....so Rest in Peace ...but if me you are still excited and empowered by what the Oprah message is really about... creating joy and success and helping the world ourselves... then let's connect and talk about moving forward to do that...Stay tuned... and in the meantime let's connect at 425-780-6872

CIO Magazine Has Good Article About The Schoolhouse of the Future

This morning I am flowing positive energy after reading Chris Yeh's article on "The Schoolhouse of the Future" in the December 2010 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine. This a nice article that brings together three emerging trends in learning that are rapidly becoming part of that "new world communications landscape" that I've personally been paying attention to and blogging about.

One emerging trend is what Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired magazine article coined as "crowdsourcing" in his article, "The Rise of Crowdsourcing". Since then the meaning of "crowdsourcing" itself continues to evolve driven by people defining it. (See wikipedia). One is example cited is using a "crowd" of people as a "source" of information contributing to a web-based Wiki. or community-authored information website, typically using a text type format. Wikipedia itself is a prime example of this. 

The second important emerging trend that the article acknowledges is the power of web video that fast-forwards innovative learning and it cites KhanAcademy.org as a shining example of this, where millions of people are learning by watching short 12 minute videos. Citing the power of web video for innovation is what I just blogged about..just yesterday..after getting ecstatic over Chris Anderson's web video-based TED Talk.

The third and newest emergent trend that Yeh sites is the development of learning "apps" for mobile devices. Actually if you publish your video learning content on YouTube you can already deliver mobile learning, but what the development community is interested in is mobile applications they can sell, so don't be surprised if you see more and webcasting and web conferencing companies also extending their capability to mobile devices. The folks at Ustream.tv are already tauting this..however the jury is still out as to whether mobile users using 4G networks have enough bandwidth to send and receive video of acceptable quality. Changes in codecs and standards are own their way that will of course improve the situation. 

In the meantime, it not too early to jump in now, especially when it comes to leveraging low-cost, almost no cost resources that already exist... with that special "secret sauce" that can make all the difference in the world... value innovation. Call if you'd like to learn more about developing the schoolhouse of the future...but doing in now... in a newly emergent new world communications landscape - 425-780-6872.

Five New Ways to Create Net New Revenue for Government Workforce Training Operations

This morning I am thinking about a nice set of meetings I had yesterday, right after the election with two of my best government clients interested is exploring new ways to create "net new" revenue for their workforce training operations...even in spite of budgetary shortfalls and failed propositions that would have raised taxes. Wow, was I fortunate that they would even talk to me, but the fact that I had already helped their businesses by using the new television...to seize new opportunity bought me a little credibility that I was able to leverage.

Here then are five timely new ways...or "steps" for creating net new revenue streams for government workforce training operations ...even in spite of tax-based revenue shortfalls and failed propositions to raise taxes:

1. "Virtualize" all those physical world meetings: Consider adding affordable web conferencing and new low cost, almost no-cost web television to "virtualize" all those physical world meetings for phenomenal advantage ...and taking nothing away. Instead of just projecting local Powerpoint presentations, you project the live web conferencing session on the wall.. and allow remote participants to also "get there" and "get back" ...almost instantly ...just by logging on and off.. and burning not one drop of gas... and adding not one micron of pollution or CO2 emission. People can even log in from home,  or from their favorite cafe with WiFi hotspot.
   
   The content of the meetings can be way better...because of the phenomenal business reach... local, regional, and national people can meet in the same virtual architecture...for way better collaboration... in way less time. Those newly-purchased smartboards are great for projecting a live conferencing session...right on the wall, still with all the great annotation capabilities... further leveraging investment in them...by having remote presenter and participants also "be there" for additional advantage. Even web television... produced by us.. and by you can be rolled into these sessions... see next:
   
   
2. Leverage the Power of the New Web Television: While others are using low-cost, almost no cost "video" technology for birthday parties, vacations, graduations and family events, we are using it to produce powerful web television programming designed to train and empower people ...and change the world. We come out of a television systems and public television programming and distance learning background and know how to produce and leverage television programming in a phenomenally powerful way that can move business forward.
   
   Think about it... television is in a class all by itself as a communications medium.. and distributed across the Internet...using the entire Internet...as an Internet-work... in our hands this can be a marvelously powerful workforce training and re-training tool...even making physical training...way more effective...and fun...when we can "roll" in best practices web television that we can produce... and empower others to produce. Already we have even trained and empowered at-risk, court-involved youth on how to produce some of their own television-based learning content..with this stuff... authoring ..and spinning their stories...constructing their lives..and raising their consciousness.. in more positive ways. Adults can learn how to do this too.
   
   
3. Engage Your Learning Community in a Series of Critical Conversations & Virtual Focus Groups:  One of the big challenges of workforce training is information "siloing" and lack of collaborative communications between agencies. Web conferencing and web television are marvelous powerful resources for cost-effectively meeting with and collaborating with learning stakeholders... including prospective "trainees" themselves who can be a part of these online conversations ...providing input and feedback that can both inform as well as shape public and private policy.. This can also help inform and shape your training curriculum.. having it be on target...and better utilized.
   
   
4. Create Additional Revenue By Developing a World-class Remote Consulting and E-learning Practice: If yours is already a model workforce training organization gaining local, regional, and national recognition in your field, then you should consider the ideas of training other agencies in other jurisdictions... and getting paid for it via highly lucrative contract consulting work delivered via the same 21st century green communications and learning platform that you have been using ...and developing your business with. Your professional development training offering, could also be world-class because of the phenomenal advantages of this big-reach, and potentially learning-rich capability. The world's very best local, regional, and even national subject matter experts, authors, trainers...even key political officials...can get there and get back...just by logging in and out..with zero travel cost... and with zero carbon footprint. Our approach... is instructionally-designed to get you ready for this. If you master steps 1-3, you'll be ready to take this step....and will have have even more resources to take an even more lucrative step... doing entire multi-day virtual conferences & virtual trade shows. See next.
   
   
5. Convene Multi-day Virtual Conferences & Virtual Trade Shows - As you might suspect... as instructional designers and trainers ourselves... our approach is also instructionally-designed ..walking the walk.. in "steps"  that get you ready to even seize this lucrative new opportunity - convening your own highly lucrative multi-day virtual conferences & trade events ...that leverage what you have learned and mastered by taking steps 1-4 over time. 

What's important to note is that doing all of this ....costs way less ...and is way more sustainable than the way that most workforce training organizations are still attempting to do business now...and with less and less budget to do it...the same old conventional physical world only...way. So the "challenge"... really is the NEW OPPORTUNITY..if managers elect to use net new tools and strategies... and value innovation ...as their "secret sauce"...to seize it... This is what we here at New World Communications are about and uniquely provide. For more information, let's connect and talk about moving forward with  these resources -  425-780-6872.