Special TechLearn Alert: e-Learning, Super Bowl & RuPaul

Special TechLearn Alert: e-Learning, Super Bowl & RuPaul

Impress your friends as you prepare for Super Bowl Parties on Sunday. Tell
them that e-learning will be featured for the first time in a Super Bowl,
super-expensive ad. And, tell them that a "Drag Queen" is the spokesperson
for this ad.

You will be right! WebEx.com, a digital collaboration & e-learning company
providing virtual meetings and presentations, is spending $1.2 million
dollars for a thirty second spot on the most watched TV show of the year.
And, to get the buzz going, they hired RuPaul, the mega-tall drag queen as
their spokesman (paying with cash and equity).

WebEx is preparing for an IPO in the next half year, so this ad is aimed at
the stock buying market as much as the e-learning purchasing manager. And,
it is paying off in publicity, with articles in Business Week and multiple
mentions on sports and entertainment shows.

If you want to check out the ad before the game, go to www.webex.com

What's next?

Happy Watching
Elliott Masie
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The Business of On-Line & e-Learning Conference will address marketing and
advertising in this field. There are still spaces available for the event,
to be held in Seattle - March 27 and 28th. Go to www.masie.com for
information and on-line registration.

156 - Digital Filtering: Personal, Organizational and Environmental

1. Digital Filtering: Personal, Organizational and Environmental: The
rise of digital technology, including pagers, cell phones and other wearable
devices, is creating demand for Digital Filtering. In its simplest sense,
Digital Filtering, is the ability of an individual or an organization, to
determine the character, timing and context of digital communication. For
example, a corporation may place a filter called a SPAM TRAP at the server
to block unwanted or pornographic advertisements. On a more personal
level, I may choose to place my cell phone on vibrate or OFF during a
concert or lunch with a colleague.

At our recent TechLearn Conference we collected hundreds of dollars in fines
from people with ringing cell phones. We gave warning that a $5 "donation"
to a charity would be collected every time we heard a cell phone chirp.

Watch for three levels of Digital Filtering to be placed into action in the
years ahead. Personal, organizational and Environmental. Personal Filters
will be actions or formulas for preferences activated by an individual.
Organizational Filters will be activated at the enterprise level. And
Environmental Filters will even take the shape of "cloaking" devices that
block intrusion into certain concert halls or conference rooms.

At the core of Digital Filtering is a desire for PREFERENCE. I want to
personalize access to me. I want to prioritize the nature of how I spend my
time. And, a cell phone call may not be more important than focus in a one
to one interaction that I am having at a meeting or over a cup of coffee.

2. An In Car e-Learning Experience: My wife and I recently purchased a new
car from Germany. This morning I had an e-learning experience in the
drivers seat. There was a function on my GPS navigation system that I did
not understand. So, I pressed the INFORMATION button on the car and in
less than a minute, a live coach was talking to me. She knew my name, the
make of my car and the location of the vehicle. In two minutes, she talked
me through how to enter some data into my navigation system and while I had
her on the line, got a quick lesson on oil change frequency for my vehicle.
It was just in time, live, personalized, mobile and awesome. Watch for
this technology to be added to historic information and even coaching for
sales staff prior to making a critical presentation.

3. Learning Quotation: Diane Ackerman

"Play is our brain's favorite way of learning."
Diane Ackerman
Submitted by: Joyce Allen

4. Walid Mougayar Added to Business of e-Learning Event: We are pleased to
announce that Walid Mougayar will be providing a keynote presentation at our
popular Business of On-Line & e-Learning Conference (March 27 and 28 in
Seattle). Walid is the author of Opening Digital Markets: Battle Plans and
Business Strategies for Internet Commerce and a monthly columnist for
Business 2.0. He joins Sam Donaldson, a panel of e-Learning CEO's and
Elliott Masie for this 2 day intensive retreat for businesses in the
e-learning arena. Info and registration at www.masie.com Seats are limited and we have sold out each year!

5. Industry Notes: KnowledgePlanet, Achieve Global and People on the Move

* KnowledgePlanet: Knowledge Universe, KnowledgeSoft, and Harbourvest
Partners today announced the formation of KnowledgePlanet.com, a new company
that will launch a business-to-business eLearning Marketplace integrated
with Workforce Performance Management (WPM). Check them out at
www.knowledgeplanet.com
* e-Books Merge: Gemstar International Group Ltd. announced January 18 that
it has entered the electronic-book business through the acquisition of the
two leading eBook companies, NuvoMedia Inc. of Mountain View, California,
maker of the Rocket eBook(TM), and SoftBook Press Inc. of Menlo Park,
California, maker of the SoftBook(R) Reader. Info at www.softbook.com
* Kevin Oakes New CEO of click2learn: click2learn.com, inc. has promoted
president Kevin Oakes to the position of president and chief executive
officer, effective immediately. Jim Billmaier, moves from the CEO position
to vice-chair of click2learn.com, and remains on the board of directors.
Steve Martino, who has served as Senior VP of Operations since 1999, and has
been with the company since 1995, becomes the company's chief operating
officer. Jim will take the CEO role of another of Paul Allen's companies,
Broadband Partners. Info at www.click2learn.com
* Achieve Global announced that they are not planning to be purchased at
this time. Times Mirror has been shopping to sell Achieve Global. Info at
www.achieveglobal.com

MASIE Center e-Learning Briefing Scheduled for Washington, DC (April 13 &
14th). Info at http://www.masie.com/elearning

155 - Learning Managers: Are Classes the Unit of Learning?; AOL and Time Warner: Content is King in Learning World

(A Personal Note: Hi! We've been quiet on the TechLearn TRENDS front over
the first few weeks of 2000, as The MASIE Center ramps up for several new
projects. Learning Decisions Newsletter is at the press and will be in
subscribers hands at the end of next week, with loads of benchmarking
articles and research data on the key decisions we face in our field. We
have launched several new seminars and conferences, listed below. We are
building a new building for The MASIE Center in Saratoga Springs, which will
contain the first e-learning Lab. This will be a place for testing and
research on new learning products and methodologies.

And, I have been trying to get a better sense of the elements that will
trigger wider acceptance and usage of e-learning. In the coming weeks, you
will see TRENDS items focusing on the need for us to ramp up the EXPERIENCE
side of e-learning and to broaden our use of interactivity and simulation.
As we enter the 3rd year of TechLearn TRENDS, we thank our loyal readership
and invite you to part of a dialogue on inventing the future of learning...
Elliott Masie)

1. e-Learning Briefing and The Busine$$ of On-Line & e-learning Conference
Announced: We are pleased to announce two upcoming MASIE Center events:

* e-Learning Briefing: April 13 and 14 - Washington, DC: This is a 2 day
briefing that I run several times a year, looking at the entire field of
e-learning. We just completed a session in Seattle, WA with 195 attendees.
It is the only vendor-neutral view of the world and includes two on-line
learning sessions in the months following the event. Space is limited!
www.masie.com for details and registration

* The Busine$$ of On-Line & e-Learning Conference: March 27 & 28 - Seattle,
WA: This is the 3rd annual gathering of vendors, developers and investors
in the e-learning space. Sam Donaldson will be our featured keynoter,
describing his experience becoming sam.donaldson @ abcnews.com Topics to
include the patterns of buying; pricing issues; emerging business models;
e-learning and Wall Street and a host of other issues. I lead this 2 day
business retreat with informal panels throughout the event featuring CEO's
and marketing managers from the key e-learning companies. Register ASAP
www.masie.com for details and registration.

2. Learning Managers: Are Classes the Unit of Learning? At a recent
meeting of learning managers from major corporations the topic of units of
learning was raised. A number of the managers expressed a concern that the
unit of measurement in most Learning Management Systems was the class.
However, the interest in the group was to build additional experiences
beyond classes, including informal learning, action learning projects and
smaller chunks of content. They wanted to see the developers of Learning
Management System recognize that vector in their plans for development.

3. AOL and Time Warner: Content is King in Learning World The merger of
AOL and Time Warner was announced the morning of our recent e-learning
briefing. It is interesting to look at the merger from the learning world's
perspective. It clearly states that CONTENT is KING! The desire to have
Content and Connectivity is a parallel desire in the e-learning field.
Watch for a number of our current learning and technology groups to be
courted in future deals!

(If you would like to receive the January edition of Learning Decisions,
there is still time. Just go to www.learningdecisions.com and sign up.
The first edition will be mailed next Wednesday!)



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Instant Survey on Learning Decisions for 2000

RE: Instant Survey on Learning Decisions for 2000
FROM: Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center

Dear Colleagues,

Let's start the year by looking at the key Learning Decisions that
organizations are confronting in 2000. Take a few minutes to participate
in our Instant Survey, focused on the critical issues your organization
will face as it plans for learning and training activities.

Go to http://www.masie.com/survey/

An executive summary of the results will be published in an upcoming
TechLearn TRENDS. Complete data and analysis, along with commentary, will
be included in our new publication. Learning Decisions Interactive
Newsletter.

Thanks for your participation.

Yours in learning,

Elliott Masie

For information on our new Learning Decisions Interactive Newsletter, go to
http://www.learningdecisions.com



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