I have some exciting news to announce today. My podcast is now available for subscription via the iTunes Music Store. I intend to share some of the original music I’ve worked on over the years as well as videos and other content that my family and I create. So subscribe and enjoy the new content today!
Hi everybody! I have been working on the website today, and there are several updates that I think you’ll like. There are some new videos of Kyah’s choir concert as well as new Flash slideshows for all of the photo albums. I have also created a podcast to share some old recordings from bands I’ve played with over the years as well as new content that the kids create. You can subscribe to the podcast using a program like iTunes or other podcast-enabled program. The address for the feed is https://www.timprobst.com/podcast/files/timprobstspodcast.rss. I hope you enjoy the new content, and definitely let me know if you have any comments.
There are a couple new albums by two of my favorite artists that I have been listening to a lot lately.
The John Mayer Trio just came out with Try! which is a live album from their current tour. The band is incredible, and it’s great to hear John Mayer really playing the guitar. I saw him play at the House of Blues in Chicago before he got really big. He played several songs without the band, and he was able to show off his chops. He is such a great guitar player, and I am glad he’s getting back to what he does best.
I’ve also been listening to Trey Anastasio’s new album, Shine. It’s a great rock album with a varied set of songs. Once again, Trey has surrounded himself with excellent musicians that make this album a lot of fun to listen to. I saw Trey with Phish back in 1995, but I’ve never had a chance to see him live with his current band. Judging by the two live tracks included with the iTunes version of the album, it sounds like Trey and his band put on a great show.
I have been a closet developer for several years now. At my previous job, I spent a lot of time developing document automation solutions using Microsoft Word and Visual Basic for Applications. Those solutions used data from several internal systems to create completely automated, data-driven documents. I had a lot of fun working on those projects, and hopefully, I’ll get an opportunity to use those skills again some day.
Lately, I have been struggling with deciding which direction I should go in pursuing new web development skills. On one side, there’s PHP and MySQL. They’re free, hosting plans are relatively inexpensive, and they’re cross-platform so I can use my Mac or Windows PC to develop. On the other side, there’s ASP.NET. Microsoft is providing Visual Web Developer and SQL Server 2005 Express at no cost for a year, hosting plans are slightly more expensive, and I would be limited to using my Windows PC to develop.
I am currently leaning towards ASP.NET because of my previous experience using Visual Basic. Visual Web Developer provides a familiar environment, and it makes it very easy to connect to data sources. Microsoft has also come a long way in supporting XHTML and CSS standards with this release.
I’m still torn every time I sit down at my Mac, though, because I do prefer Mac OS X to Windows XP, but which technology will provide the most opportunities in the long run? In either case, I have a lot to learn. Decisions, decisions . .
Okay, so it’s been an insanely long time since I’ve posted anything to my blog. It’s probably about time I get back to writing about technology, music, and other things that are interesting to me. Stay tuned for some updates about what I’ve been in to lately. Until then . .
In my professional and educational experiences, I have worked with teams that have been separated by great distances and time zones. In each case, the teams used tools to facilitate communication and collaboration among the team members. Following are descriptions of the tools used by each team.
Large US Bank/UCC Vender Interface Project
When a large US bank and its UCC vender collaborated to create an interface between the bank’s origination and servicing system and the vender’s web-based system, members of the project team were located in California, Texas, southern Illinois, and Chicago. The project manager for the vender had used a product from Groove Networks called Groove Virtual Office, and he suggested that we use the product for our project. Groove Virtual Office provided all of the tools necessary to function effectively as a team from many different locations. All team members had access to all project documents, project plans, and online communications tools they needed. Weekly meetings would be held online or via conference call. All team members were signed on to Groove during the conference calls so instant access to documents was available. Groove was a very effective tool for our project team throughout the duration of the project. When the team completed the project, it was very easy to archive all documents and notes because they were stored in one place.
Groove Virtual Office Tools
Large US Online University Learning Teams
One of the most useful and fulfilling parts of a large US online university’s approach to education is the idea of the learning team. In each class, instructors group students together into learning teams. In addition to individual work, there is a team assignment due each week. At the end of the class, these weekly assignments culminate in a complete term paper for the team. The most important lesson I learned by working with the teams was learning how to work with individuals in different physical locations using nothing but online tools. The university supplied a newsgroup setting for the teams to store and share messages and documents. Students also could use any instant messaging tool and e-mail to communicate. The teams I worked with all used the newsgroup extensively to communicate. They also used instant messaging to have real time meetings. The most geographically diverse team I worked with had a user in India, another user in South Korea, a user in New Jersey, another user in California, and me in Chicago. This team used the newsgroup setting almost exclusively due to the difference in time zones. Even with the great distances between team members, the team came together and functioned effectively creating a product that earned an A grade. The combination of the newsgroup, e-mail, and instant messaging provided an environment that allowed the learning teams to be successful.
Learning Team Tools
Summary and Conclusions
While each approach to online collaboration discussed above provided an environment that allowed the teams to succeed, they each had shortcomings that prevented them from being the perfect solution (although Groove Virtual Office comes very close). Based on my experiences with working with teams in an online environment, teams need the following tools to be effective and successful:
Following are additional tools that may also be useful:
With these tools in place, a team can collaborate effectively and successfully in an online environment. All team members have access to the same documents and information at all times, and they can also communicate in real time with the ability to save the conversations for later use.
Hi everybody! Welcome to my blog. I am going to write from time to time about the things that interest me most (i.e. family, music, computers, etc.).