09:29 gabe hi everyone!
09:30 GerryWaz hi, Gabe-meister!
09:30 gabe how's it going, gerry?
09:31 GerryWaz busy as usual and you folks?
09:32 gabe same! i'm not sure where the hours go. :)
09:32 gabe so i think you had a great list of suggestions for topic today - everyone see gerry's list here?
http://www.articulate.com/forums/general-discussio…
09:32 gfriese it is a good, and long list
09:32 gabe glad to hear you enjoyed the articulate 101 series!
09:33 gabe anyone have any questions or comments about any of the posts? http://www.articulate.com/blog/29-really-useful-articulate-tutorials/
09:35 gabe after doing 29+ posts in one month, march has slowed down quite a bit. :)
09:35 gabe are there topics you'd like to see covered that weren't?
09:35 gfriese I am always looking for more design ideas, like Tom covers weekly
09:36 MikeB Tom has a fun blog
09:36 gabe yeah, he does a great job! glad you find it helpful.
09:37 gabe i thought dave moxon's demo about navigation was really cool! see that one? http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-101-using-hyperlinks-in-presenter/
09:38 gfriese I am all for whiz bang, but continuing tips and pointers to ensure the basics are great
09:38 gfriese like many software products I figure I am only using AP, AE at a fraction of their potential, but I want to make sure what I am doing is really good
09:39 gfriese Some of the advanced features, good to know they exist but low chance I will ever use some of what is posted in forums/blogs etc
09:39 gabe cool. good feedback, greg.
09:39 MikeB true, but it is sometimes hard to get others out of the standard powerpoint presentation mode
09:39 gabe that's why i think the 101 series was good - we tried to mix it up with beginning, intermediate, and advanced tips
09:40 gabe i think when you think of PPT as a blank canvas and get outside the bullet approach, it really opens a new world of possibilities.
09:40 gfriese beg, int, adv would be a good way to rate. I cant recall was there anything in the post as to the intended audience
09:40 gabe (like dave's butterfly demo)
09:40 gabe good point.
09:41 gabe have you seen dave's new blog? http://daveperso.mediaenglishonline.com/
09:41 gabe moxon (not mozealous)
09:41 GerryWaz way cools, thanks for the link
09:41 MikeB I hadn't seen his blog yet. thanks
09:42 GerryWaz You guys are setting a high standard for supporting your users. thanks!
09:43 gabe we aim to please! i recently submitted our application for this year's best support site contest, which we won last year.
09:43 MikeB Compared to the Articulate forums both the elearning guild are the captivate forums very quiet
09:43 gabe hopefully we'll have a repeat!
09:43 gabe yeah, i love how vibrant our forums are!! i can't even keep up these days. :)
09:43 gfriese good luck with application
09:43 gabe thanks!
09:44 MikeB The employees and customers are both very active with this product
09:44 gabe i think we get something like as many as 20+ new threads per day and 70+ posts!
09:44 gabe at the high end.
09:44 gabe thanks, mike- it's true - we have a great community and try to be as involved as possible with our customers.
09:45 gabe we've actually hired two former customer MVPs. :) (tom and dave moxon)
09:45 gfriese and you are looking for more customer service reps
09:46 gabe funny you should ask, greg- http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-is-hiring-support-customer-service/
09:46 gabe just posted that on monday
09:46 gfriese is there logical or existing promotion pathways for customer support reps?
09:47 gabe people who are committed to the company and work hard have gotten promotions, yes.
09:47 gabe our pal justin recently became sr. customer support engineer.
09:51 gabe we're a quiet bunch today, aren't we? :) no burning questions or other topics?
09:51 GerryWaz Gabe? No response to my question :) or is it something you cannot talk about. I'm only concerned that the needs of SME developers continue to be recognized.
09:51 gabe i must have missed it, gerry.... let me scroll up.
09:52 gabe i don't see anything, gerry....
09:52 gabe maybe a meebo glitch?
09:52 gabe can you post again?
09:52 GerryWaz ok
09:52 GerryWaz Gabe--I've asked this before but I can't rememebr ever getting an answer. When AP came out it seemed more for SME's and non-developers. Over time your products have gotten more varied and more powerful and more professional developers are using them.
09:53 GerryWaz Who do you see is main audience now? and how will you answer both the needs of the SME developers and the professional developers/"hackmasters"?
09:53 GerryWaz did you get it now?
09:53 flaviofusuma hi everybody!
09:53 MikeB interesting question
09:53 gabe hi flavio - welcome!
09:53 gabe good question, gerry.
09:54 GerryWaz most of our AP users are SMEs
09:54 gabe yes, i think the vast majority of our cusotmers are SMEs/less technical people.
09:54 GerryWaz so i need to be assured that they will still be "cared for" in the future
09:54 gabe but what's great about our products is that they're easy enough for less technical people to use, but also allow the envelope to be pushed really far.
09:54 gabe yes, you can bet on it, gerry.
09:54 GerryWaz i'm glad that's what you folks are trying to do
09:55 GerryWaz must be hard sometimes, though
09:55 gabe this post has some hints from our president, adam, about what the future holds: http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-1-market-share-among-privately-held-companies/
09:56 GerryWaz Can't wait to see what the old Captivate 2 team contributes to the new versions . . :)
09:56 gabe yup! you've already gotten a preview of their work with Engage.
09:57 GerryWaz forgot that :)
09:57 gabe as always, if anyone is interested in beta testing new releases (when time comes), feel free to email me @ ------------------------ and i'll add you to the list.
09:57 gabe (if you haven't already done so)
09:58 GerryWaz where is justin and tom today?
09:58 GerryWaz minding the store?
09:59 gabe not sure! dave and sarah, too...
09:59 MikeB I am sure that beta testing would be fun (and a good way guide the feature development), but I couldn't do it at work as I have projects to do and don't have the free time on the side.
09:59 gabe just pinged them all to see where they are. :)
09:59 gabe i understand, mike.
09:59 MikeB I know that wednesday snuck up on me today
10:00 GerryWaz well, speaking from experience as a beta tester, it is rewarding to see how Articulate continues to take your suggestions into account
10:00 GerryWaz as they do with enhancement requests
10:00 gabe thanks, gerry. and yes, very true.
10:00 gabe welcome, sarah!
10:00 GerryWaz well worth any time you can squeeze in to do
10:01 sarah hello all! sorry i'm late!
10:01 GerryWaz Gabe, you've done some experimenting and hinting at new forum things coming. anything you can talk about?
10:02 GerryWaz Again, anything you can do--like the 29 posts--to accumulate the user knowledge would be great
10:02 gabe oh, that was actually a test related to our search engine, which i highlighted as our biggest support site challenge of the past year.
10:02 gabe to include in that best support site application.
10:03 gabe i was seeing how long it takes to index a new thread.
10:03 gabe (about 30 minutes)
10:03 GerryWaz i'm surprised how quickly they appear in "real" google
10:03 gabe right on. yeah, the 29 posts series was great! though a lot of work - even though i didn't write them all, i edited every single one. :)
10:03 gabe google must like us!
10:04 gabe yeah, look at that- my blog & forums posts from monday already live-
http://www.google.com/search?q=Articulate+is+Hirin…
10:04 gabe indexed by google.
10:04 MikeB How long before February 1st did you have to begin work on the 29 posts?
10:05 sarah i thought the 29 x 29 series was a great collaboration and nice way to pull some resources together. maybe a forum series would be helpful as well?
10:05 GerryWaz I see a post yesterday or Monday available on Googel within an hour after posting--must have been good spider timing
10:05 gabe wow! that is fast.
10:05 gabe sarah- good idea. tom & i have talked about doing another series, but maybe making it weekly.
10:06 GerryWaz Yeah, some way of grouping them togetherfor ease of scanning would be helpful
10:06 gabe forum series would be cool, too, and yes- great collaboration.
10:06 gabe gerry- we started work probably a few weeks before feb. 1.
10:06 gabe some came in plenty early (like sarah's!) and others not until the same day. :)
10:06 GerryWaz Next time I'm not going to ask for permission
10:06 gabe i wrote most of mine either same day or day before. :)
10:06 GerryWaz :)
10:07 gabe good call, gerry!
10:07 gabe act now, apologize later!
10:07 GerryWaz Can you give me a pseudonym? :)
10:07 gabe yup! i was going to suggest that, too.
10:07 GerryWaz The Articulator (to steal from justin :) and his wrestling posts)
10:08 gabe ha! yeah, good call.
10:08 GerryWaz What would be nice is having a structured list of steps for the beginner to follow in getting their first AP/QM/AE project done
10:08 GerryWaz with approproate links
10:09 GerryWaz Even though we know the development process is really more iterative
10:09 GerryWaz beginners need structure to get them going
10:09 gabe good idea, gerry.
10:09 GerryWaz we're doing that for our SME's new to developing e-learning for our LMS
10:10 GerryWaz it's such a huge body of knowledge for them to absorb - if they can pick it off step by step with some guidance
10:10 GerryWaz and links to more details
10:11 GerryWaz beginners also need templates sometimes
10:11 GerryWaz any plans to expand what the Hortons did for you folks?
10:11 gabe true. structure and examples are great.
10:11 GerryWaz or having template sharing in the forum?
10:11 gabe the templates are great for lots of people.
10:11 gabe i'm not sure what our plans are for template sharing in the forums, though i think it's a good idea.
10:13 GerryWaz getting back to your bullet point comment, can you put something in your software that presents publishing slides with just bullet points? (Just kidding :) )
10:13 GerryWaz Though Tom's showing of good and bad examples is good--may be a hall of shame of bad practices
10:13 gabe heh heh
10:13 gabe yeah, the side by side he had recently was coool.
10:14 GerryWaz people respond more to the visual these days
10:14 MikeB and Visual is not always a SME's strong point
10:15 gabe good point, mike.
10:17 MikeB Since Gerry asked about templates, do most people design one and use it for all courses or design a new template for each course?
10:17 gabe from what i've seen, many of our customers create a standard template and use it for all courses.
10:18 MikeB I have been at some jobs were the elements were the same position and names but the colors were different and others where everything was the same or completely different. As a developer, I like to be able to look at a course and recoginize it
10:18 GerryWaz I like the horton templates with the instructional design built in
10:18 gabe yeah, i have seen some examples where there will be a variety.
10:19 GerryWaz wish we had more of those for beginners
10:19 gabe university of leeds comes to mind- they have a library of courses and all look diferent
10:19 flaviofusuma I work in a company that delivery eLearning content.. we'd studied the best practices to work PPT and Presenter... and we develop a custom template for each course
10:19 gabe the horton-developed ppt template kit is great.
10:20 GerryWaz you know, it might be good--even though this basic PowerPoint and not AP--to show people how to modify the horton templates to their look and feel and corporate designs
10:20 gabe that's great, flavio. for those of you who missed it, tom featured some of flavio's mash-up work in this 101 post (3 demos toward the bottom): http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-101-bring-the-web-to-your-e-learning/
10:21 flaviofusuma but I can see the same elements in each template... so, we just change the graphic design of each one.
10:22 GerryWaz hmmm. maybe an e-learning PPT template generator tool/wizard
10:22 GerryWaz with ISD built in
10:24 gabe that would be really cool.
10:24 GerryWaz you can churn that out in a week or two, can't you :)
10:24 flaviofusuma if you have a set of pre-made icons.. it could be a great deal
10:25 gabe of course, gerry!
10:25 GerryWaz :)
10:25 gabe pre-made icons would be very helpful for many, flavio!
10:25 gabe tom mentioned that to me- you should consider marketing/selling them! :)
10:27 GerryWaz Different subject--are you folks watching SilverLight?
10:27 flaviofusuma I just heard about..
10:27 GerryWaz Can't see it displacing Flash . . .
10:28 gabe yeah, that was on our radar way back when.
10:28 flaviofusuma I can't see it too.. and flash is a hyper-flex tool
10:28 gabe our products are obviously built around flash, which is much more ubiquitous
10:29 MikeB I haven't been watching it. It would be hard to take over the top spot from flash, but you never know.
10:30 GerryWaz Not it if "functions" like Vista :)
10:30 flaviofusuma did you guys saw the presentation of next flash version?
10:31 GerryWaz no--any goodies?
10:31 gabe heh heh. yeah, no kidding, gerry.
10:31 flaviofusuma bones
10:31 gabe i haven't seen yet, either, flavio
10:31 flaviofusuma 3d
10:31 GerryWaz bones?
10:31 flaviofusuma real time 3d
10:31 flaviofusuma bones for animation
10:31 GerryWaz gotcha
10:32 flaviofusuma just a moment.. i will search this presentation
10:32 gabe speaking of flash, i just saw this headline on techcrunch: Adobe Forging Ahead with Flash for the iPhone Despite Jobs’ Remarks
10:33 gabe "Engadget is reporting that Adobe plans to build Flash into the iPhone with the newly released SDK, even though Steve Jobs declared less than two weeks ago that the technology wasn’t ready for the device."
10:33 gabe could get interesting! "Now it’s Microsoft’s turn to declare plans for putting Silverlight on the iPhone with the SDK, something Scott Guthrie, VP of Microsoft’s Developer Platform, has suggested the company might do."
10:34 flaviofusuma
http://youtube/watch?v=ympeCv8lLmw
10:35 MikeB Is anyone developing mlearning yet?
10:35 GerryWaz looking at it a bit in some of sales groups
10:35 flaviofusuma It's just to fill the gap about iPhone without flash, YET
10:36 flaviofusuma as I was reading, it's just about performance...
10:36 GerryWaz some of our sales folks want podcasts on CDs
10:36 gabe thanks, flavio. i'll check out the link.
10:36 MikeB is it still a podcast if it is on cd?
10:36 gabe there's a lot of interest in podcasting audio versions of elearning
10:36 GerryWaz not sure
10:36 GerryWaz that's how they describe it to me
10:37 gabe sure, why not? :)
10:37 gabe a podcast is just audio you take with you
10:37 GerryWaz the reps that travel by car to customers would like it
10:37 GerryWaz and those who go by plane could play also on their laptops
10:38 GerryWaz or play the whole content
10:38 GerryWaz Gabe--any thought of publishing to EXE from within AP?
10:39 gabe yes, that's a common request - just look at my blog post about server2go.
10:39 GerryWaz we had problems with server2go
10:39 GerryWaz something with how our IT group customizes our software
10:40 GerryWaz I was doing some Lectora work for one of our plants who lost their developer and couldn't beleive how easy it was to do inside that program
10:40 gabe ahh... that's too bad. they recently released a new (simplified) veresion.
10:40 GerryWaz the one thing that made me jealous
10:41 GerryWaz the SMEs need something one-push-button simple
10:41 GerryWaz it's the instant gratification society
10:42 GerryWaz and hide the technology from me syndrome
10:43 MikeB that is what makes developing technology so difficult. Make it easy for the masses and powerful for the superusers.
10:44 gabe that's our daily challenge. :)
10:44 gabe well, everyone, i think i need to get going - getting hungry and time for a late lunch! plus busy day... great chat today! thank you all for joining!
10:44 gabe (you're all welcome to stay & chat, of course, if you'd like.)
10:44 MikeB thanks for having us over
10:45 GerryWaz bye all--i wish we could get more folks here--this is wonderful
10:45 flaviofusuma see ya gabe
10:45 flaviofusuma see ya gerry
10:45 sarah bye!
10:45 flaviofusuma se ya everybody
10:45 flaviofusuma i'm leaving too
10:45 MikeB bye!
