Wednesday
Jan122005
300 - Best Place to Work Winner: Wegmans; Report from CES - Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile
January 12, 2005
TRENDS by Elliott Masie - January 12, 2005 #300 - Updates on Learning & Technology
49,974 Readers - The MASIE Center - www.masie.com
1. Best Place to Work Winner: Wegmans
2. Report from CES - Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile
3. e-Learning ASIA Announced
Dear TRENDS Readers,
As I started to write today's TRENDS, I noticed that this was the 300th issue. I started TRENDS in 1997 as an simple way of sharing some observations about learning and technology with the attendees of one of our events.. Over the years, it has been an intriguing and simple way of keeping in touch with a wider and wider range of colleagues around the world. It comes out without a regular schedule, does not use any HTML or pictures, you cannot buy an ad or rent the mailing list and it even has a few spelling errors at times (from late night writing). I see that we have 49,974 listed readers as of today. I look forward to interacting with you (via email, a drink gathering on our travels or an unexpected hello from a TRENDS reader in an airport). Thank you for reading occasionally and may 2005 be a very interesting year for Learning.
Elliott
1. Best Place to Work Winner - Wegmans: Let me extend our congratulations to Wegmans, one of The MASIE Center's e-Learning CONSORTIUM members, on their designation as Fortune Magazine's Best Play to Work! I have been an admiring of the Wegman's food chain for years and have gotten to know their training and learning leaders. They are impressive. Here is a quote about employee satisfaction from senior Robert Wegman, the 86 year old company chairman, who led the company to $3.5 billion in sales last year:
"I've been aiming for that for 54 years and it's taken a long while to hit the target but I've finally got there," he said. "It's hard for me to walk through a store without customers stopping me and saying, `Mr. Wegman, you've got a great store but, wow, are your people something else.'"
At Wegmans' 67 stores in four states, 32,800 workers are paid hourly wages at the high end of the market and offered a $3 per week health insurance premium. That's resulted in a 6 percent annual turnover rate among full-time employees, compared with a 19 percent rate among competitors. Learning is a key value at Wegmans. Way to go!
2. Report from CES - Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile: As promised last week, we had several scouts at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Their reports where quite different, looking at diverse aspects of the gadgets, technology, trends and marketplace. Here are a few summary comments and then some perspectives on things to keep an eye on in 2005 and 2006.
*The emphasis was on smaller, faster, brighter, more mobile and cheaper. There were not any really revolutionary new technologies. However, the batteries were WAY LONGER LASTING, the chips were faster, the devices were smaller, the screens were brighter and there was a clear movement towards more standards and globalization.
*The continued emergence of the DEVICE as the key technology rather than software or even traditional hardware was evident. We were surprised that there still was not a lot of focus on Workplace Electronics. But, there was a lot of emphasis on the home office.
Here are a few of the applications to learning and the workforce that I can make from the CES announcements and scouting reports:
How Portable Media Players Can Include Learning Video Content: Microsoft and others rolled out new portable media players, which take the IPOD concept and extend it to high quality video. We can imagine a way in which an employee can receive a download of learning and training content to their portable media players that they can take on the road and can re-direct the playback to any display device, including a hotel TV. Watch for meta-data on media usage to be developed and leveraged that would provide tracking feedback to a LMS like device.
* The Growth of SMS Text Messages Capacity for Learning: Outside of the U.S., SMS is a highly and widely used feature of mobile phones. People can use their phones as network devices to be notified of restaurant reservations, pharmaceutical reminders, just in time content notifications and other elements. Watch for SMS to extend to a wider set of self-service transactions for workers and consumers. Hopefully, the U.S.will catch up.
* Collaboration Technology - Video Conferencing & IP Video: We are about to see expanded use of VOIP, Voice over the Internet, as a real competitor to home and office based telephony. For example, all international calls from The MASIE Center are now made on Vonage. Watch for the extension to device based video and video collaboration. We are talking quality way above current webcams. On-going video over IP will be rolling out in 2005 and 2006 and will push the collaboration.
* Visual Search Capabilities - Next Generation: Watch for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to roll out new search capabilities that are visual in nature. Search your hard disk for all pictures and have the program organize all the pictures that have your dog in the frame. Search the internet for a person who is in this picture. Display search results in a much more visual and dynamic nature than current search engines.
* Gaming Evolution and Convergence: CES was loaded with ever increasing mobile and more dynamic gaming functionality. We will report on this in a larger edition focused on The MASIE Center’s new xLearn Lab, which will be tracking gaming, simulation and other forms of EXTREME learning.
3. e-Learning ASIA Announced: The MASIE Center is pleased to announce our first e-Learning even in the Asia region:
e-Learning ASIA (Co-Sponsored by Cathay Pacific) March 16 and 17, 2005 Hong Kong
Information and registration at http://www.masie.com
49,974 Readers - The MASIE Center - www.masie.com
1. Best Place to Work Winner: Wegmans
2. Report from CES - Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile
3. e-Learning ASIA Announced
Dear TRENDS Readers,
As I started to write today's TRENDS, I noticed that this was the 300th issue. I started TRENDS in 1997 as an simple way of sharing some observations about learning and technology with the attendees of one of our events.. Over the years, it has been an intriguing and simple way of keeping in touch with a wider and wider range of colleagues around the world. It comes out without a regular schedule, does not use any HTML or pictures, you cannot buy an ad or rent the mailing list and it even has a few spelling errors at times (from late night writing). I see that we have 49,974 listed readers as of today. I look forward to interacting with you (via email, a drink gathering on our travels or an unexpected hello from a TRENDS reader in an airport). Thank you for reading occasionally and may 2005 be a very interesting year for Learning.
Elliott
1. Best Place to Work Winner - Wegmans: Let me extend our congratulations to Wegmans, one of The MASIE Center's e-Learning CONSORTIUM members, on their designation as Fortune Magazine's Best Play to Work! I have been an admiring of the Wegman's food chain for years and have gotten to know their training and learning leaders. They are impressive. Here is a quote about employee satisfaction from senior Robert Wegman, the 86 year old company chairman, who led the company to $3.5 billion in sales last year:
"I've been aiming for that for 54 years and it's taken a long while to hit the target but I've finally got there," he said. "It's hard for me to walk through a store without customers stopping me and saying, `Mr. Wegman, you've got a great store but, wow, are your people something else.'"
At Wegmans' 67 stores in four states, 32,800 workers are paid hourly wages at the high end of the market and offered a $3 per week health insurance premium. That's resulted in a 6 percent annual turnover rate among full-time employees, compared with a 19 percent rate among competitors. Learning is a key value at Wegmans. Way to go!
2. Report from CES - Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile: As promised last week, we had several scouts at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Their reports where quite different, looking at diverse aspects of the gadgets, technology, trends and marketplace. Here are a few summary comments and then some perspectives on things to keep an eye on in 2005 and 2006.
*The emphasis was on smaller, faster, brighter, more mobile and cheaper. There were not any really revolutionary new technologies. However, the batteries were WAY LONGER LASTING, the chips were faster, the devices were smaller, the screens were brighter and there was a clear movement towards more standards and globalization.
*The continued emergence of the DEVICE as the key technology rather than software or even traditional hardware was evident. We were surprised that there still was not a lot of focus on Workplace Electronics. But, there was a lot of emphasis on the home office.
Here are a few of the applications to learning and the workforce that I can make from the CES announcements and scouting reports:
How Portable Media Players Can Include Learning Video Content: Microsoft and others rolled out new portable media players, which take the IPOD concept and extend it to high quality video. We can imagine a way in which an employee can receive a download of learning and training content to their portable media players that they can take on the road and can re-direct the playback to any display device, including a hotel TV. Watch for meta-data on media usage to be developed and leveraged that would provide tracking feedback to a LMS like device.
* The Growth of SMS Text Messages Capacity for Learning: Outside of the U.S., SMS is a highly and widely used feature of mobile phones. People can use their phones as network devices to be notified of restaurant reservations, pharmaceutical reminders, just in time content notifications and other elements. Watch for SMS to extend to a wider set of self-service transactions for workers and consumers. Hopefully, the U.S.will catch up.
* Collaboration Technology - Video Conferencing & IP Video: We are about to see expanded use of VOIP, Voice over the Internet, as a real competitor to home and office based telephony. For example, all international calls from The MASIE Center are now made on Vonage. Watch for the extension to device based video and video collaboration. We are talking quality way above current webcams. On-going video over IP will be rolling out in 2005 and 2006 and will push the collaboration.
* Visual Search Capabilities - Next Generation: Watch for Google, Yahoo and Microsoft to roll out new search capabilities that are visual in nature. Search your hard disk for all pictures and have the program organize all the pictures that have your dog in the frame. Search the internet for a person who is in this picture. Display search results in a much more visual and dynamic nature than current search engines.
* Gaming Evolution and Convergence: CES was loaded with ever increasing mobile and more dynamic gaming functionality. We will report on this in a larger edition focused on The MASIE Center’s new xLearn Lab, which will be tracking gaming, simulation and other forms of EXTREME learning.
3. e-Learning ASIA Announced: The MASIE Center is pleased to announce our first e-Learning even in the Asia region:
e-Learning ASIA (Co-Sponsored by Cathay Pacific) March 16 and 17, 2005 Hong Kong
Information and registration at http://www.masie.com
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