This Blog Goes to 11

My blog has moved (link to new blog). Update your bookmarks and subscriptions if you'd like to keep track of what I am up to.

There's been a bit of controversy in the video game community the last week and a half that centers around the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director and 10 year veteran of the gaming site GameSpot.com. GameSpot provides news, reviews, previews, and downloads of electronic gaming across all platforms - computer-based, handhelds, home console systems, etc. Users can also write their own reviews of games, create blogs, and participate on the site's forums.

In addition to providing news, images, and videos of their games in development, video game publishers also spend large sums of money to advertise on GameSpot based on the high amount of traffic the site generates. And if there is one place on the entire site that is visited without fail, it is the GameSpot game reviews. So what happens when a company who has just spent thousands of dollars advertising their new game on a gaming site has that same site give the game a bad review? That's exactly what Jeff Gerstmann found out.

The game in question is called "Kane and Lynch: Dead Men." The player takes the role of Kane, "a death row inmate on his way to criminal execution, apparently convicted of being a very savage criminal as part of a notorious gang called The7." At the beginning of the game, the other members of The7, including Lynch, bust you out of jail and thus starts your ultra-violent exploits in this blood-soaked, action packed, "crime-themed shooter."

Now before I go any further, something that you must understand is that amidst all of the development interviews, storyline details, and reports on early builds of games, sites like GameSpot pretty much become hype machines for said games. Early reports on games in development do mention possible issues that a game might have, be it spotty control or iffy graphics or a bad camera system, but, for the most part, these early reports always seem to feature phrases like "we're excited by what we see" and "we can't wait to get another crack at this game." So, obviously, game publishers are going to want to advertise their new games on sites that are generating a lot of positive buzz about them. But after those ad spaces are paid for come the reviews. And that's when reality may set in. That's when the user may find out that the game he or she was looking forward to and had set aside money to buy may not really be worth spending that money on after all. And that's when the game publishers who shelled out the dough advertising their game may see a bad review that will equate to game sales not being as high as they were hoping for and get upset.

Gerstmann gave "Kane and Lynch" a 6.0 out of a possible 10. This equates to a designated game status of "Fair." Any game that is reviewed with a score of 8.0 (maybe even 7.5) or above is considered a quality game worthy of the gamers' hard earned money. But a 6.0? That's a rental at best. For those who would like to read Gerstmann's review, here you go.

"Kane and Lynch" was released on November 13, 2007. Gerstmann's review of the game was posted on GameSpot's site at some point between then and November 28. I'm not sure of the exact date his review went online. On November 29, numerous gaming sources began reporting that Gerstmann had been fired from GameSpot allegedly over his negative review of "Kane and Lynch." Now it's important to mention that Gerstmann had been at Gamespot for nearly 11 years, and had reviewed games during his entire tenure there. I think it's safe to say that he had given poor reviews to games before, so what happened here? Why was he fired?

The sources said that Eidos Interactive, the publisher of "Kane and Lynch," saw the low score and threatened to pull all of their advertising from the site. At the time that the review for the game was posted, the entire GameSpot site was filled with "Kane and Lynch" backgrounds and multiple banner ads. GameSpot has completely denied these claims, and has issued their own account of Gerstmann's dismissal in what has become known as "Gerstmann Gate." I won't detail GameSpot's response, but here it is for anyone who is interested.

Now I don't know if Gerstmann was fired for giving a game a bad review or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. Eidos publishes many games, and if they really did threaten to pull their advertising, it would mean thousands and thousands of dollars of lost revenue to GameSpot. Regardless of the reason for Gerstmann's firing, the whole episode has put the legitimacy of sites like Gamespot in question. The tactic of game publishers throwing money at the outlets who review their products to influence a positive review isn't a new concept. But the firing of Jeff Gerstmann might just be one of the highest profiled examples of such a thing actually happening.

I recently just replayed a game called Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty for the PS2. It originally came out in 2001, and (obviously) is the second game in a series. The 4th installment, titled Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, is coming out for the PS3 next year. I rarely return video games after I have completed them, because there is always a point where I get nostalgic and want to go back and replay them. Also, the collector in me wants to be able to have all the Metal Gear Solid games together in my catalog. So, in preparation for the upcoming 4th game and to refresh myself with the overall story, I have replayed and completed the first two games. I'll be starting the 3rd one again shortly.

I'm not going to get into the main story line of the game here, but I am going to mention certain plot points and characters without spoiling anything for those who may want to play the game and find out on their own. But for those who would like to know more about the game's story and have no plans to play it, here is the wikipedia page for Metal Gear Solid 2 (MGS2).

The Metal Gear Solid series is known for intertwining real world issues and themes into its story line including the morality of soldiers and the consequences of war, but it mostly focuses on the threat of nuclear proliferation and the maneuverings of those in power in order to achieve their own ends. Metal Gear is the name of a heavily armored, bipedal walking tank that is capable of firing a nuclear missile from anywhere in the world. As the story progresses from the first game to the next, the specifications of Metal Gear, which was secretly being developed by the U.S. government and captured by a renegade group of special forces turned terrorists, have been sold on the black market and are available to anyone with the funds and resources to build one. The main character of the game, who goes by the code name Solid Snake, is the one man the government turns to in order to prevent the terrorists from using Metal Gear to make good on their threats.

In the second game, the threat of nuclear attack is still a prevalent theme, but the concept of the control of information in the digital age as another and almost equally frightening abuse of power is brought up. I find this to be extremely interesting, because a case is made around the fact that all information, no matter how trivial, is constantly accumulating and being preserved and is therefore actually slowing down social progress and reducing the rate of evolution. Liken it to the genetic code and natural selection - in genetics, "unnecessary information and memory must be filtered out to stimulate the evolution of the species." But the fact that now practically all information in its various forms is recorded and available, much of it pointless, there is no real context for what is "valuable truth." For example, humans have always kept records of their lives throughout the course of history - writings, images, symbols, etc. But, in the past, not every mundane event was preserved. Only a "small percentage of the whole was selected and processed, then passed on." This is very similar to the passing on of genes.

Darwinism. Survival of the fittest. The natural order of things. In nature, those with the strongest genes survive to pass them on to their children. In society, those who are the strongest beat out the competition and succeed. Human nature and behavior is predicated on these basic instincts. But as we plunge ever faster into the digital age, have these instincts eroded away? What can we learn and and how can we grow when we are inundated with the concepts that success is contingent upon nothing anymore. Britney Spears is no longer famous because she sells tons of albums and fills up arenas around the world. She's famous now because everyone wants to know how she'll screw up next, not because she continues to be successful. Her albums have steadily declining sales with the most recent being the worst selling by far. Her fans have thinned, and her appearances on music awards shows are mocked by the media. She has two children that had to be taken from her by the legal system due to her erratic behavior and unsafe parenting. In another day and age someone like her would have faded away into obscurity, but now anyone with a camera phone can take a video of her running through stop signs in her car and post it to YouTube in a matter of minutes for the whole world to see. And this is why she's still relevant.

So if it really is the case that all of this unnecessary and trivial information is accumulating and eroding away the instincts that help us to grow, adapt, and evolve, does there need to be some way to control what information is received by the masses? That is the question that the game asks which, in the context of its story, is motivated by the antagonists and their lust for power that you as the hero are battling against. I'm not posing that question myself (my lust for power is not as great as that). What has made me stop and think is the reality that information - every little bit of it - is no longer ignored. Even though we have the ability to decide for ourselves what is important to each of us, how many of us really do that? As technology becomes faster and more powerful, are we progressing less and less? I would say, if anything, that the advent of such amazing technology is testament to how far we've come, what we've accomplished, and what's on the horizon. But the trick is how we use what's available to us. Sometimes we know so much, yet really have learned so little.

I was in attendance at Steve Jobs' keynote presentation at Macworld in January of 2007 when he announced the iPhone. An iPod, email client, web browser, and a phone all in one. I even snapped some pictures of it as it went on public display for the first time:

I wanted one right then and there, but there were two things stopping me. The first being that they weren't going to be on sale for about another 6 months. The second being that AT&T was going to be the service provider for the phone. I use Verizon, and had just signed a two year agreement less than two months prior. And, personally, I like Verizon, and I like the Razor phone I have. So I thought, you know, can't they just sell me the iPhone with all of the features except the phone part? Wouldn't that be cool?

Well lo and behold, about two months after the iPhone goes on sale to the public, Apple announces the iPod Touch. It's exactly what I was hoping for - all the features of the iPhone without the phone. This was something I knew I must have. And it wasn't long before I purchased one.

What can I say about it? I love it! Front and center is the whole touch screen interface. This will never stop being cool to me. Navigating on this thing is incredibly smooth, and, dare I say, fun too? Scrolling down the list of artists to choose the song I want by flicking my finger and watching the screen scroll never gets old. But that's just one of the things I love about it.

If this thing were just an iPod with the touch screen feature I would be thrilled with it. One of the coolest things I did was add the album art for all of my albums.

You can search through your music in a variety of ways, but there's just something enticing about doing it by scrolling through your album covers. It's kind of reminiscent of thumbing through a box of old vinyl albums (although now I've just dated myself). And I'm a collector by nature, so being able to see my entire album library all in one place and in the palm of my hand is just satisfying.

So, like I said, if this thing were just an iPod with the touch screen interface, I'd be thrilled. But there's so much more. I can upload pictures and videos, which I haven't actually done yet (with the exception of my album covers). And I can surf the web. Just like the iPhone, the iPod touch has the Safari web browser installed. And it works pretty well. It's pretty cool to be sitting in Beaver stadium during the halftime show and checking ESPN.com for other football scores. The web pages load at a pretty good rate if there is a strong wi-fi connection. There's no email client on the Touch, however, but I don't consider that a big deal as I use AOL for my personal email, and I can just log onto their site and check my mail that way.

I haven't even touched on the link to iTunes, mostly because I haven't used it more than once or twice. I think I am old school in the sense that I prefer to buy CDs rather than download music. It goes back to the collector in me. I like having the entire package - all the songs on an album together to listen to as a whole work by the artist. Although, downloading shows and movies is another story. But I haven't done that yet, so I think I'll hold off on talking about this feature until later.

Suffice it to say, the iPod Touch was money well spent. I went with the 16GB model, and I have a little less than half of it filled - just with music. The next thing I plan to do is to get some photos uploaded. I've said it about a half a dozen times already, but I'll say it again. I love the thing. I take it with me wherever I go, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Those that know me well know that I am kind of a video game junkie. Video games have been my biggest addiction all my life. It started with the Atari 2600 that my brother and I had when we were little, along with that handheld Mattel football game that was just a bunch of LED dashes on a tiny screen, and continues to this day with my PS3, PSP, and Wii. In between I've owned most of the major gaming consoles, although, interestingly enough, I never had a Nintendo console until my brother got me a Gamecube for Christmas one year. I was more of a Sega/Sony guy. I even had a Commodore 64 that I used just to play games (and I even knew Basic language), which was really the precursor to the 8-bit era of gaming that the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) ushered in.

Suffice it to say that I like video games. And it's always fun when I meet others who enjoy them as much as me. I actually share an office with one (Brad), and another works right down the hall (Stubbs). Brad and I have had many conversations about games and systems and the like, but I honestly didn't know that Stubbs was another one of us (although he did mention Guitar Hero to me a few times - but that's a game that casual gamers love to play as well) until just yesterday when he came to our office after overhearing us talk about a new game called Assassin's Creed. I won't go into details about that particular game mainly because I am thinking about making some of my blog posts be game reviews, but that conversation sparked a great idea.

As we talked about games, I mentioned that there is actually a PS2 in the 202K conference room (we got it last year for Brian Smith's Innovators Speakers presentation) and that I had brought in some games and controllers for it a while ago. Also, since I had just gotten a Wii, I wouldn't be using my Gamecube anymore so I could bring that in as well. Stubbs then offered up his old Xbox to the mix. We realized we had the makings of a cool gaming parlor.

But as we continued to talk, the conversation shifted from the actual games themselves to the technologies and features that the gaming systems are employing. Brad talked about the cool things he can do with his Nintendo DS, and I was talking about how I can use the remote play feature on my PSP to view media I have saved on my PS3 hard drive anywhere I can access the internet. And as I was saying that I could bring it in and show them how it works, it occurred to us that there may be more staff than just us who would like to talk about and see stuff like this (and play games over lunch).

So we started kicking around the idea of having gaming brown bags. Basically these would be lunches in the conference room where we play games, but also discuss what we think is cool about gaming, what's hot now, what's on the horizon, etc. If it's not your turn at the game, you can eat your lunch, participate in the discussion, or root for one of the people actually playing. I know several of us in the office have PSPs, and we could connect them to not only play games but to share media (videos, pictures, music, etc.). Brad talked about showing some of the lesser known but more innovative games for the DS. And I told them about Jason Johnson showing me an NES emulator that he has on his iPod Touch that I think others would like to see. There's really tons of things to talk about.

I think we could do these once or twice a week, and I don't think we need to have an agenda. Just show up if you want to play or talk about gaming. If these turn out to be popular, I'd like to see us extending invitations to faculty and students to join us. We can use the Educational Gaming Community site as our platform for announcing dates of the brown bags as well as a way to continue any discussions that are started, or even start conversations on the community site that can be continued in person at the lunches. Brett has asked me to look at ways to promote the community site, and I think this might be a unique and fun way to do it.

We're looking to have the first brown bag after the Thanksgiving break. Again, no agenda. Just come and have fun, eat lunch, and talk about gaming. We'll also make a list of what games we have. Anyone is welcome to bring games to share as well. I'll post a date and time for the first brown bag on the TLT staff site when we have it set.

Mary Janzen
ANGEL
Completed
• Recommended Browsers and Computers knowledgebase article: revised to no longer list Mozilla per help desk request; re-uploaded to KB
• ANGEL Shorts Vol. 1, Issue 2 (instructor): edited
• ANGEL Shorts Vol. 1, Issue 3 (student): edited
• ANGEL unavailable during upgrade announcement: edited
• Thoughts on documentation/knowledgebase project for debriefing meeting: typed up and distributed to documentation team; met with team 6-29 to discuss

In progress
• ANGEL Community Hub posts on specific features to generate discussion: drafted 8 so far

Pending
• Overview handout by Carol McQuiggan at Harrisburg: possibly edit

Adobe Connect
Completed
• 17 related Web pages on planning a meeting with some participants face-to-face and some at a distance: edited

Studio 204
Completed
• Video of the week flier: proofed
• Video of the week poster: proofed
• Studio 204 Is Coming to ULC poster: proofed

TLT in general
Completed
• TLT site projects page at http://tlt.its.psu.edu/projects/current.html: updated blurbs on ANGEL and Symposium and added blurbs on Faculty Engagement Initiative, Blogs at Penn State, and Virtual Worlds; page still needs an overhaul by [person in charge]
• Consultation on required elements of publications: provided to coworker
• Athena folder structure for FY 2008 communications archive: set up

In progress
• TLT-related text in Your Guide to ITS: revised existing text and wrote new text assigned to me; awaiting one blurb in order to send all to John for approval

Details
• Digital Commons - FMC and Studio 204: revised existing blurbs; obtained approval from Pat and Hannah
• ANGEL: rewrote and added Community Hub info; obtained approval from Jeff and Terry
• Adobe Connect: wrote new blurb; obtained approval from Yvonne and Barb
• Blogs at Penn State: wrote new blurb: obtained approval from Elizabeth and Cole
• TLAs: updated URL
• Symposium: updated event date
• Faculty Engagement Initiative: wrote new blurb; obtained approval from Cole
• Research and Assessment Consultations: polished up text provided by Vicki
• TLT unit description: revised; will send to John for approval

Course Submission & Consultation System
Completed
• User’s Manual and College Proposal Administrator Manual: met with Sherry Walk in Faculty Senate to find out content changes; updated text; obtained approval from Sherry; made PDFs; updated HTML version; posted in online help

Pending
• Additional documentation on graduate-level course proposals: add to manuals

Schreyer Institute
Completed
• Scanning operations announcement revision: posted on TLT news

Jamie Oberdick
Meetings
• Attended All-Staff meeting
• Attended TLT Marketing meetng
• Attended E-Testng marketing meeting
• Attended ANGEL Documentation lunch

June Newsletter
• Edited podcast, including choosing music, transitions, editing out ‘ums’ and “ahs”, converted to MP3 and posted on
• Edited Vicki’s Seven Questions feature
• Edited all copy, including adding code.
• Moved all stories to Drupal
• Arranged stories according to best placement
• Wrote headlines
• Added Web Conference story
• Wrote blog post
• Wrote announcement email

July Newsletter
• Wrote outline for July issue
• Sent email to Cole proposing a podcast on his recent presentations

SAP Podcast
• Sent Anil (faculty member) link to podcast
• Working with Chris to solve questions Anil has regarding access and posting links to the podcast on his site.

Guide to ITS
• Wrote WebLion portion
• Sent to Mike/Christian for approval
• Received approval, sent to Mary

Scanning Operations Marketing
• Started to write draft of “Where’s Diane” article
• Attended meeting

TLT Calendars
• Gathering event dates
• Reviewed campus calendars

Derick Burns
ANGEL
• Revised ANGEL Shorts “5 Things an Instructor Should Know about ANGEL 7.1”
• Revised ANGEL Shorts “5 Things a Student Should Know about ANGEL 7.1”
• Attended ANGEL Ops meeting to give marketing updates

Adobe Connect
• Met with Yvonne to discuss Adobe Connect Community Hub, finding faculty who can be Adobe Connect advocates, and promotional/marketing plans

Guide to ITS
• Worked with Mary on edits and editions to TLT content

Studio 204
• Printed 200 copies of Video of the Week Spotlight flyer to be distributed at the New Student Summerfest on July 1
• Printed and mounted poster for Video of the Week Spotlight to be hung at New Student Summerfest on July 1
• Printed 250 Studio 204/FMC cards for New Student Summerfest on July 1
• Attended weekly marketing meeting
• Created and printed 11 x 17 version of Video of the Week Spotlight poster for computer labs
• Layout of poster for Studio 204 moving to 7 Sparks this summer
• Printed and mounted poster for Studio 204 moving to 7 Sparks this summer

iStudy
• Printed 200 copies of student flyer to be distributed at New Student Summerfest on July 1

Testing Center
• Attended weekly marketing meeting

TLT Marketing
• Attended Communications Group meeting
• Added updates for JTH to Basecamp

Miscellaneous
• Attended ETS Operations Group meeting
• Attended weekly meeting with Chris
• Attended ETS Leadership Group meeting
• Printed 10 copies of the following TLT service sheets for Jeff Swain’s trip to Dickinson: Turnitin, Podcasts at Penn State, ANGEL 7.1 New Features, ANGEL, Adobe Connect Professional
• Emailed PDF versions of the the following TLT service sheets to Jeff Swain for his trip to Dickinson: Turnitin, Podcasts at Penn State, ANGEL 7.1 New Features, ANGEL, Adobe Connect Professional
• Met with Allan to discuss promotional advertisements on TLT podcasts
• Attended ETS all-staff meeting

Mary Janzen
ANGEL
Completed
• Restricted File Types in ANGEL article: edited help desk’s draft; formatted as knowledgebase article; added to KB
• ANGEL Policies article: added text re: master courses and learning object repositories per Terry’s request; re-uploaded to KB
• Corresponded with Talisma customer support to clarify how some KB reporting features work
• Wrote a suggested outline of a Report tab Captivate tutorial per April’s request
• Wrote prototypes of idea to encourage discussion on the ANGEL Community Hub

Pending
• Maintenance schedule information: add to ANGEL Support article or create a new article when help desk indicates preference
• ANGEL Shorts 6-29 issue: edit when layout received

Adobe Connect
Completed
• E-mail to Indiana inter-university Breeze list: edited

In progress
• 17 related Web pages on planning a meeting with some participants face-to-face and some at a distance (41 pp in small type when printed out): editing; 5 completed

TLT in general
In progress
• TLT-related text for Your Guide to ITS: incorporated Training portion edited by Tara; obtain answers to questions on what to mention; complete edits; obtain approval for each topic from respective project manager; obtain approval from Cole; obtain approval from John Harwood; send to Peggy Smith
• E-mail from John Harwood to UP dept. heads regarding what's new/important/changed in classrooms and labs: edited

Professional development
• Read two chapters of Mail and Internet Surveys book

Jamie Oberdick
• Attended Web Conference

• Attended e-testing marketing meeting, ETS marketing meeting

June Newsletter
• Interviewed Vicki Willams for podcast on book chapter she wrote
• Edited Vicki’s Seven Questions feature
• Took six stories that were in email and re-wrote and edited them for newsletter.
• Began search for stories for In the news feature
• Asked people for stories.

SAP Podcast
• Working with Chris on new podcast possibilities re: John’s email about other podcasts.

ETS Blog
• Edited another article from TLT newsletter for posting on ETS Blog
• Posted on Blog

Guide to ITS
• Reviewed Podcasts at Penn State and LionShare entries

Scanning Operations Marketing
• Wrote first draft of expanded article; found out changes due to construction schedule delay.
• Attended meeting to go over changes
• Began to make a few of the changes after meeting.

Survey Report
• Had to edit 27-page report with fast turn-around.
• Finished Fri morn, do have to check with you on issue Vicki raised.

Derick Burns
ANGEL
• Sent content from ANGEL quick-start guides to Carol McQuiggan
• Formatted ANGEL Shorts document “5 Things a Faculty Member Should Know about ANGEL 7.1”
• Formatted ANGEL Shorts document “5 Things a Student Should Know about ANGEL 7.1”

Adobe Connect
• Worked with Mary on an announcement regarding the Adobe Connect community hub to be posted to the Adobe Connect CIC listserv

ETS Briefing Videos
• Met with Allan to discuss putting together promotional videos of ETS services

TLT Symposium
• Discussed committees with Allan

Studio 204
• Attended weekly meeting with Hannah and Pat
• Revised Video of the Week Spotlight flyer and poster
• Video of the Week Spotlight flyer and poster sent to JTH for review

Testing Center
• Attended weekly marketing meeting
• Reworked marketing time lines based on new date for the move of Scanning Operations from Rider II to Pollock Building
• Added new marketing time lines to Basecamp and marketing plan spreadsheet

TLT Marketing
• Attended Communications Group meeting
• Added updates for JTH to Basecamp

Miscellaneous
• Attended one-on-one meeting with Cole
• Contacted Kerry Trout at WPSU about recording promotional spots on TLT podcasts
• Typed up report for John and Cole regarding issue with ITS contract with the Collegian
• Created list of additional Collegian display ads (dates, sizes and cost) that can be run before the contract expires on 8/15

Mary Janzen
ANGEL
Completed
Knowledgebase article Word files: placed a copy of final approved version of each on shared Athena file space for documentation team and Training Services to access
Several articles: made minor corrections/added metadata, e.g., added “related articles” to 16 articles per team member’s request
ANGEL-related listings on TLT and ITS site indexes: updated/added/deleted as necessary
ANGEL site index: in case any user had bookmarked the 6.3 Help & Information Guide site index, I deleted all but a handful of entries, to which I assigned knowledgebase URLs, and placed a notice at the top pointing to the knowledgebase

TLT site menu pages with ANGEL and TLA info/links: identified and updated; In the process, I made other necessary updates to menu listings/URLs that I discovered; total of 14 pages updated

TLT content pages with ANGEL info/links: conducted a site search; identified TWTC site as containing numerous such links; obtained the URLs of the knowledgebase articles containing the equivalent subject matter and indicated obsolete links to be deleted in a write-up sent to site owner

Gradebook seminar handout: proofed per trainer’s request

Studio 204
Completed
Paragraph for CLC listserv with advice to faculty assigning video projects: edited

Course Submission & Consultation System
Completed
Quick-Start Guide (10 pp): updated instructions for adding CSCS component to My Profile; new screen captures in 7.1 theme; updated HTML; generated PDF; posted in old ANGEL help area
User’s Manual (30 pp): updated instructions for adding CSCS component to My Profile; new screen captures; updated HTML; generated PDF; posted in help
College Proposal Administrator manual (8 pp): obtained approval from Sherry Walk; new screen captures; updated HTML; generated PDF; posted in help
Faculty Senate Administrator manual (9 pp): obtained approval from Sherry Walk; new screen captures; updated HTML; generated PDF; posted in help

Pending
Await information on new changes currently being made to the system that will require a new version of the documentation

Training Services
Completed
VoIP Telephone Training fact sheet: edited

Pending
TLT site pages with Web-Based Training info/links: identify locations; delete info as of June 29 discontinuation of WBT

TLT in general
In progress
TLT-related text in Your Guide to ITS: revising for 2007 issue

Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence
Completed
Scanning operations relocation announcement: posted on TLT site news

Professional development
Attended Web 2007 conference, including keynote by Jared Spool; Internet Marketing: How to Get Noticed; Higher Ed Web Development Gets Flattened (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New World Order); Migrating to Content Management Systems; Virtual Worlds (including introducing the session speakers); closing keynote by Kimberly Blessing

Jamie Oberdick
Attended Web Conference

Attended e-testing marketing meeting

June Newsletter
• Finished outline.
• Pulled more stories.
• Attempted to find people for question of the month, realized I can’t get people for it this month
• Recruited Vicki Williams for Seven Questions
• Wrote Seven Questions, sent to Vicki
• Decided to write a story on ANGEL Shorts as opposed to podcast
• Wrote ANGEL shorts story
• Scheduled podcast with Vicki on a book she wrote.

SAP Podcast
• Wrote ending John requested
• Recorded ending John requested
• Posted to iTunes
• Converted it to several formats.
• Sent to John
• Now working on a future SAP podcast that would involve other users of SAP at PSU

ETS Blog
• Edited another article from TLT newsletter for posting on ETS Blog
• Posted on Blog

Guide to ITS
• Reviewed Podcasts at Penn State and LionShare entries

Scanning Operations Marketing
• Began press release, will finish Wednesday.

LionShare/WebLion Marketing
• Sent Mike and Christian email asking for product goals.

Derick Burns
ANGEL
• Worked with Carol McQuiggan on ANGEL quick-start guides for faculty and students

Breeze
• Met with Yvonne Clark to discuss Breeze Community Hub promotion

CLC
• Completed layout of ITS computing lab policies poster and emailed to Kent Becker
• Worked with Mary to create a small paragraph to be sent to the CLC listserv regarding faculty using Studio 204 for assigning student video projects
• Sent CLC computer lab info that appears in the Guide to ITS to Kent Becker, Becky Carolus, and Mary Ramsey for updates

Turnitin
• Added letter to faculty from JTH to Basecamp and marketing plan spreadsheet for distribution in August

Testing Center
• Announcement regarding moving of Scanning Operations from Rider II to Pollock sent to the following venues: TLT site, TechNews, ITS Alerts, ITS Faculty site, Training RSS feed, Network of People, ITS Consultants, Schreyer Institute web site, and colleges (Smeal, Agriculture, Arts & Architecture, EMS, Engineering, Health and Human Development, Liberal Arts, IST, Communications, Education)
• Emailed meeting notes to John Harwood, Angela Linse, Will Kerr, Wendy Baker, and Dave Hollen
• Attended weekly marketing meeting

TLT Symposium
• Attended weekly meeting with Allan
• Preparing a “Keep the Date” blurb for March 29, 2008

Studio 204
• Attended weekly marketing meeting with Hannah and Pat
• Sent announcement regarding Studio 204 participating in New Student Summerfest at the HUB on July 1 to JTH for review
• Completed layout of flyer for Studio 204 Video of the Week to be distributed at New Student Summerfest on July 1
• Completed layout of poster for Studio 204 Video of the Week to be distributed at New Student Summerfest on July 1
• Sent announcement regarding Studio 204 participating in New Student Summerfest at the HUB on July 1 to Student Newswire, ITS Student web site, and ITBytes

TLT Marketing
• Attended Communications Group meeting
• Added updates for JTH to Basecamp

Miscellaneous
• Met with Allan to discuss upcoming marketing for TLT Symposium, Speaker Series, and Technology Bootcamp
• Sent job description for ANGEL Marketing Coordinator to Cole
• Attended Project Management meeting
• Met with Debbie Ingram to discuss ITS and TLT collaboration at Fall Welcome Week Penn State Resource Fair, iStudy and Studio 204 links on the ITS Student web site, coordinating on a “Faculty Channel” that would be a monthly calendar of events sent to faculty for ITS updates, and a blogging article for the ITS internal newsletter

Mary Janzen
ANGEL
Completed
Logon Details document linked on ANGEL logon screen: per request from help desk, removed the existing file from the old help area; updated text and converted to a knowledgebase article

In progress
Knowledgebase: recordkeeping, file organization, evaluating/refining team process/instructions for the future, analyzing reports

Studio 204
Relocation announcement: posted on TLT Web site news
Summerfest announcement: edited

Jamie Oberdick
Attended Marketing meeting

June Newsletter
• Finished outline.
• Pulled a few stories from various sources.
• Contacted several people for stories.
• Came up with idea for question of the month
• Attempting to recruit people for question of the month podcast.
• Writing questions for podcast with Jeff Swain on ANGEL Shorts

Studio 204 moving e-announcement
• Received information needed from Hannah.
• Sent to John
• Made John’s change
• Made Mary’s change
• Posted in archive

Scanning Operations e-announcement
• Made Esther’s edits
• Made Schreyer edits
• Posted in archives

What Works Podcast on Second Life
• Finished edits
• Wrote blog post announcing it is up on iTunes
• Posted in iTunes
• Finished

ETS Blog
• Edited article from TLT newsletter for posting on ETS Blog
• Posted on Blog

Derick Burns
ANGEL
• Formatted template for ANGEL Shorts publication
• Met with Jeff and Mary regarding ANGEL Shorts and Innovative Product Sheets
• Added ANGEL Shorts updates to Basecamp and marketing spreadsheet
• Attended ANGEL Ops meeting to give marketing updates

Digital Commons:
• Attended planning meeting

Studio 204
• Worked with Jamie to revise move to 7 Sparks announcement
• Announcement regarding move to Sparks Building sent to: Student newswire, Network of People, TLT web site, Studio 204 web site, ITS Student web site, ITBytes, student news service, Studio 204 Facebook Group, TechNews, ITS Faculty site, Faculty/Staff newswire, Training RSS feed, Schreyer Institute web site, ITS Alerts, and colleges (Smeal, Agriculture, Arts & Architecture, EMS, Engineering, HHD, Liberal Arts, IST, Communication, Education)
• Worked with Jamie on announcement for Studio 204’s participation in the New Student Summerfest event at the HUB on July 1
• Met with Hannah for weekly marketing updates

eTesting Module
• Met with Yvonne to discuss eTesting module and video

Testing Center
• Worked with Jamie to revise move from Rider II to Pollock announcement
• Sent revised announcement to JTH and Angela Linse for approval
• Attended weekly meeting with Esther Del Rosso

New Media Conference
• Trimmed and mailed Elizabeth’s poster to conference hotel

TLT Marketing
• Attended Communications Group meeting
• Added updates for JTH to Basecamp

Web Conference
• Mounted LionShare poster to board and delivered to Mike Halm
• Printed 25 copies each of 5 LionShare case studies for hand outs

Miscellaneous
• Met with Mary to discuss Marketing Coordinator job description
• Attended ETS Operations meeting
• Met with Chris to discuss iTunes U news stories
• Added TLT Communications Group items to travel/training spreadsheet

Mary Janzen
ANGEL
Completed
New Features in Version 7.1 seminar handout by Heather Huntsinger: edited

Knowledgebase articles: completed editing and posting of all articles including new ones on iStudy added this week; completed adding links to related articles in the properties area for each article; finalized and posted Enroll in a Group article as I learned in the ops meeting that as of 5/31 you can now do so (bug fixed); wrote and posted ten articles on topics I felt had not been covered

Directions to regrade matching and ordering quiz questions affected by issue resolved 5-31: edited draft from help desk and formatted as a KB article that the explanatory e-mail from Terry will point to; obtained approval from Irma and Terry; formatted as a Web page and posted in TLT space

Version 6.3 documents and images (many hundreds) in former help area: deleted all one by one except those on the CSCS, per Yvonne’s observation that they were still Google-able.

Community Hub: made a post that was basically an informal marketing announcement for the New Features seminar and handout offered by Training Services; made a post explaining that the ability to self-enroll in a group had been restored

Pending
Links to ANGEL topics from outside, e.g., TLT site index, ITS site index, various TLT content pages, any other locations I discover: delete those that are obsolete; replace appropriate ones with knowledgebase URLs; request updates by content page owners

Consulting and Support Services
In progress
Your Guide to ITS: identified portions of last year’s issue that each writer should look over and edit/add to for the next issue; edit and write my portion

Jamie Oberdick
Attended Studio 204, Marketing, Calendar, and Scanniing Operations meetings

May Newsletter
• Worked with Jason to correct Drupal problems
• Did one final edit as I couldn’t Friday due to Drupal problems
• Included Cole’s column
• Set publishing mode
• Finished

June Newsletter
• Started outline

Studio 204 moving e-announcment
• Attended meeting
• Wrote announcement
• Made edits
• Awaiting answer of question to Hannah before sending to John.

Scanning Operations e-announcement
• Attended meeting
• Wrote announcement
• Made Derick’s edits
• Sent to Esther

SAP Podcast
• Finished editing and sent to John for approval
• Awaiting his reply

What Works Podcast on Second Life
• Wrote script
• Recorded intro/outro
• Editing

Derick Burns
ANGEL
• Discussed ANGEL Shorts publication with Jeff Swain
• Attended ANGEL Ops meeting for marketing updates

CLC
• Added ITS Lab Policy posters to Basecamp and marketing spreadsheet
• Layout of ITS Lab Policy posters to be placed in the computer labs on campus

Studio 204
• Attended marketing meeting
• Worked with Hannah to create link on home page to podcasts.psu.edu site
• Worked with Jamie on Studio relocating to Sparks Building announcement
• Added Video of the Week Spotlight flyer and poster to Basecamp and marketing spreadsheet
• Contacted John Harlow, Assistant Director of Student Activities Late-Night Penn State, regarding promotion for New Student Summerfest

Testing Center
• Emailed notes and marketing time lines to John Harwood, Angela Linse, Will Kerr, Wendy Baker, and Dave Hollen
• Met with Jamie and Esther to create content for announcement regarding scanning services move to new facility

New Media Conference
• Revised layout of poster for Elizabeth
• Emailed copy of poster to Rachel Smith at NMC
• Printed poster to mail to Elizabeth’s hotel room
• Burned poster file on CD for Elizabeth

Web Conference
• Completed layout of LionShare poster for Mike Halm
• Printed poster

TLT Marketing
• Attended Communications Group meeting
• Added updates for JTH to Basecamp

Miscellaneous
• Met with Jamie and Robin about calendars (conference room, Oracle, and ANGEL calendars)
• Attended Project Management meeting