Melbourne Business School Goes Web 1.9

Recently, Melbourne Business School has started participating in various online social communities such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. When I worked at MBS, I advocated using some of these services for different reasons and to see them using all of them at once leaves me with some mixed feelings. I thought I'd drop some initial thoughts on the use of some of these services.

Twitter

MBS is using Twitter to promote the "Melbourne Experience." This is definitely targeted at international students and tweets point to things like Melbourne bars and breakfast spots (aside: for those considering Melbourne, we have plenty of such venues). I've been using Twitter for a while now, but I have NEVER used them to scope out a future destination and I probably wouldn't. If I was interested in Melbourne, I would follow a known MBS student and if I was interested in Melbourne, I would follow someone (anyone interesting) who lived in Melbourne.

Advice: Tweet for the benefit of current students. Potential students might take an interest.

YouTube

I advocated YouTube as a no-frills way to host video on someone else's server and get maximum exposure. MBS has gotten this one right; now that the videos are on YouTube, they are easy to embed on their web site and someone else can foot the bill for bandwidth.

Advice: Replace existing videos on the website with their YouTube embeds.

Blogger

Again, this blog seems to target those international students considering studying in Melbourne. I'd say its a better choice than Twitter for this purpose; you really need pictures and a good amount of text to give Melbourne its full accolades. I'm much more likely to browse this blog when considering MBS than I am to do Twitter-related activities.

People's experiences in Melbourne are diverse, and Melbourne has a lot to offer. For example, I don't care much for footy, but I do know a lot about where to eat and the IT industry in Melbourne. I'd like to share, but I don't have a proper outlet.

Aside from this blog, students also have a Dean's Blog and I see no reason why they can't be combined.

Advice: Combine multiple blogs into one. Consider guest authors covering niche topics for potential students.

Facebook

The most likely to be vandalized or result in some PR disaster (except for perhaps MySpace which I'm not going to cover because I'm not a teenage girl), Facebook is a high risk, high return adventure.

The duplicate content between here and the blog worries me, mostly because if this process is not automated, it can become very difficult to manage. But let's face it, people are Facebook-addicted and what kind of social media experiment would be complete without Facebook?

Advice: Try to synchronize content across the blog, YouTube and Twitter to Facebook. Watch the posts carefully.

LinkedIn

The problem with LinkedIn is that it fails to draw a distinction between people who work at MBS and those who study there. This a problem, as students generally don't care about the career path of former MBS employees nor do they particularly care to link up with, say, a former IT business analyst there. New students are not "new hires" and seeing that on LinkedIn just seems wrong.

Advice: Keep LinkedIn for staff. If staff, especially faculty, keep their engagements up to date, this will intrigue potential students who are interested in research and general academia.

Conclusion

This post is really nitpicking. MBS has taken a great step forward and should be commended for pursuing different channels for delivering their message and connecting to current and future constituents.

Bicycle Registration Article in The Age

Update: Someone has noted in the comments that Flip is female. It was probably Flip herself. Apologies to Flip for this unfortunate mixup. This is why I'm not a journalist. I also removed some harsh wording that was, frankly, a inappropriate.

In today's age, Flip Shelton talks about cyclists on Melbourne's roads:

AS A cyclist, I say bike registration is a must — but not so narrow-minded car drivers can ensure that the few cyclists who flout the law can be held accountable.

OK, so he she doesn't exactly get most people on his her side by calling them narrow minded. I'm so ambivalent about this article that I just had to put out there for discussion.

On the one hand, he she makes a good point the drivers do not understand what it is like to riding a bicycle or a scooter with cars. He She argues that since she occasionally rides a scooter, she has a better appreciation for those on the road riding scooters.

This seems like common sense, but consider this. After riding my scooter for a couple of months, I was nearly hit by car on King Street who, without indicating, switched into my lane, forcing me to swerve and stop short. I fell and received some nasty scrapes and bruises. A few scars remain, reminding me to always listen to my mother. Who was the driver that hit me? A very apologetic motorcycle rider who happened to driving a car that day.

So strike one against Ms. Shelton. Let's not go and base public policy on your singular experience.

Ms Shelton recommends that all road users gain experience cycling, driving and riding a scooter. But come on! This is surely too narrow. Has he ever considered the plight of a tram user who alights on Swanston Street at 9am to be nearly hit by a minivan driving by Chinese tourists (also me). And what about those pedestrians that have to dodge cyclists on the footpath who try to squeeze in between families with little kids as they are walking down Lygon Street near the busy pizzerias (also me, minus the kids).

Strike 2 for not being ambitious enough.

And finally, as the above exert says, Flip wants me to pay her for assuming the risk of riding a bicycle. She thinks we should be thankful that she is decongesting our roads. How noble! What about those who chose to live close to where they work? Should we receive government incentives? (In fact, the converse is true; new homes, usually in the outer suburbs receive the highest grant from the government). What about public transport users? To think we actually pay to use the tram! I've got it all wrong: the ticket machine should be paying me for staying off the road!

Strike 3 for being so self righteous.

Let's have a little compassion, sure. You ride on the road and not on the footpath and I promise to try very hard not to hit you. For the most part, I'll take the tram, relieving congestion on the road for cyclists and cars alike. And I'll continue to pay for it and not feel too bad about it. I'll occasionally assume a higher risk than you by riding a scooter, but I won't expect a cent from you. And yes, I have paid a premium to live close to the city too. I enjoy my walks to the supermarket.

Apologies for the Reposting

I edited an old post to fix some minor typos and most of my posts were redelivered via RSS yesterday. Sorry if this annoyed you, but I can't promise it won't happen again.

Buying a Puppy

I've settled into my new apartment and have recently started a new job. The next thing on my to-do list was getting some company. This is my first time living alone ever and while I'm getting used to it (and frequently have friends over), I just couldn't resist the urge to get a dog.

I had considered many different breeds and did quite a bit of reading. In the end, I had narrowed it down to a few pure and "designer" breeds including pugs, puggle (pub x beagle), pugalier (pug x cavalier king charles), samoyed, labradors and golden retrievers. And yes, I know there is quite a variation between the beginning of that list and the end.

In the end, I saw a litter for sale of a combination just too good to refuse: a samoyed crossed with a gold retriever (a "samriever" if you like).

I put a deposit on "Tigger", a male samriever about 2 weeks ago. He's about 4 weeks old now, and he'll be coming to Melbourne in a couple of weeks. He's a picture I just got from the breader.

Moving to Ruby Full Time

I recently started new job, which has involved near full time Ruby on Rails development. I have previously done some minor projects in Ruby and Rails, but for the most part, I have been using some combination of ColdFusion, Java and PHP for most of my professional career. I thought I would note some of my observations about using Ruby as compared with some of the other languages.

Readability: Ruby is well known as the "glue that doesn't set" meaning that Ruby code remains easy to read, even after a leaving it for a significant amount of time. This is hard to argue with. Anyone who has ever explored a Rails model or read an RSpec test can easily see some of the virtues of Ruby. Compared to most language, Ruby wins hands-down. But, the problem arises when it comes to

What-the-hell-is-going-on-ity: The readability of Ruby comes from its many metaprogramming features. RSpec does a great job of adding the right methods to Ruby classes, as does Rails. But this means that a lot of code or methods are added for you. Control flow and the definitions of methods become difficult to pinpoint. The more simultaneous frameworks you use, the greater chance of confusion. All this while your code remains quite easy to read. But what about trying to debug or add new features. This is where the problems start to creep in. By using the much more verbose Java, we can still have our dependancies documented and explicitly referenced in our code. Yes, this creates noise which makes our code harder to read, but it also leaves breadcrumbs as to what is happening.

Community: This is sometimes overlooked when considering which language to learn. It doesn't just matter the size of a community, but the quality of it. ColdFusion has a relatively small community, but is active and friendly. I can easily name the hot-shots of ColdFusion and I can subscribe to their blogs with too much information overload. In contrast, the Java community is probably too big. Frankly, I wouldn't know where to start when looking for blogs to subscribe to.

Ruby is a funny creature. The Ruby community seems small. On the other hand, the Ruby on Rails community is large. It's rare to find a Ruby programmer who doesn't use Rails. And Rails certainly has its "key people" and finding Rails tutorials and podcasts is pretty easy. You're not likely to find such a wealth of knowledge for most other frameworks like Model-Glue or Spring. But if you're interested in Ruby qua a programming language, you can get a great start here, but good luck after that. This can keep you from writing really excellent Rails code for quite some time, somewhat delaying superior readability of your Rails code.

Perception: Justified or not, ColdFusion gets a bad rap as dying and/or expensive platform. I've been hesitant to dive head first into the world of ColdFusion since I'm unsure of its future. Ruby, by all accounts, is, has been and will continue to be on its way up in the world. Rails too. With its adoption on the JVM and .NET, its attraction will only grow. Java, in comparison, seems stale and while its probably not going anywhere, it's best days are probably behind it.

Employability: Most Ruby jobs are Rails jobs. Knowledge of other frameworks are usually not required. Although Rails incorporates features from a number of frameworks in the Java world (Hibernate plus Spring MVC, for example), it is still a single framework. You either know Rails or you don't, and it is rare you will receive a Ruby language exam when applying for a Rails job. In contrast, Java jobs often require in depth knowledge of Java (garbage collection, intricacies on serializability, the Liskov Substitution Principle, etc) and knowledge of several Java frameworks (Java EE, Spring, Hibernate, Axis or whatever). This is a lot know, and it forces Java programmers to pick their niches early in their career and makes it hard to break out of it. For example, can you really go from being a Spring middleware guy to write UIs using the Google Web Toolkit? Not easy, to be sure.

ColdFusion has the opposite problem: if you know the language, that is usually sufficient. Sometimes, experience with an [any?] MVC framework is desired. Of course, if you know Rails, for example, then you do know an MVC framework and really shouldn't hesitate to apply.

Sum it All Up

So what does this all mean for you? Well, if you're interested in the web space and you don't mind somewhat limiting yourself there for the time being, Rails is a good place to start. But because you probably don't know Ruby of Rails, there is going to be a steep learning curve.

If you have confidence in ColdFusion and its future, I have certainly enjoyed my team in that space, but you should really force yourself to understand and integrate with the Java world that powers it. That should cushion you, just in case pessimists like me are right. Learning an MVC framework like Model-Glue, or learning to integrate with Flex front-ends would be time well spent too.

If you've just finished university, chances are you already speak Java. This is great, but is really just the beginning of the skills you'll need to work in the Java world. Learning a couple of Java frameworks (Spring and Hibernate go well together) should help you find that first good job.

If you are otherwise an experienced Java guru, look at Rails with JRuby. You might realize you have been writing way too much code that nobody else can read.

Tools of the Trade

When at work, many of us are using Windows when are hearts might be elsewhere. As I wind down work with my current employer, I'm taking not of the tools I installed over the past 18 months which has significantly boosted my productivity. Here they are in no particular order.

Confluence

An enterprise wiki developed by a very switched on Australia company, company has been a great tool to share knowledge. Since we adopted it, I don't believe there has been a single file stored on the shared drive. Everything in Confluence is searchable, taggable and can be edited without opening Word.

Mingle

I've blogged about Mingle before, but its worth repeating: Mingle is a great tool. Its easy to use and does a very small amount of things reasonably well. Unfortunately, it was introduced into a team which wasn't very disciplined with project management (and our one project manager left several months ago) or time tracking so it didn't transform the way we work as much as I would have liked. However, if anything was going to work, Mingle was it.

ObjectDock Plus

ObjectDock is a Windows utility which mimics the dock on Mac OS X. Aside from the nice looks (it does suprisingly well, even with very low quality icons), it definitely increases your productivity. I have basically eliminated using the Start menu and can quickly open documents with specific applications just by dragging them to the dock. I use the Plus version and it money worth spending. I am able to move my system tray to the top of the screen (like the Mac menu bar) which makes a bigger difference than you would otherwise expect.

Google Chrome

The early adopter that I am, I quickly tried out Google Chrome when it was released. It turns out the speed is the killer browser feature. I've strayed to other browsers on occasion (Safari 4 Beta isn't bad) but I keep coming back to the Chrome. Lots of you out there rely on Firefox and her extensions. I hear you, but that's just not me.

Excel 2007

Nothing has improved my ability to analyse data more than Excel 2007. It seems to crash less than most Office applications, and the way it handles pivot tables is surely the way nature intended. The is extended to how it works with OLAP cubes; Excel is definitely my preferred OLAP client. For added value, impress your boss by using the data mining plug-in to do some incredibly useful tasks.

E

E is a text editor for Windows based on Textmate for Mac. I still prefer Textmate, but E comes close. I was never able to get the Cygwin integration working, but then again, I'm not as big a Unix geek as some. Still, e is a great lightweight text editor that gets out of your way, quickly opens files as text (even if they're not) and is always a right click away.

Jing

Jing is a very lightweight tool that allows you to quickly take screenshots or screencasts. It is free and has almost no features, but I wouldn't use anything else. It sits on the edge of your screen as a translucent sun, waiting for you to click it. When you do, you decide, image or movie, and off you go. You can't edit videos, but you can draw, highlight and annotate screenshots. Its always available, doesn't consume many resources and "just works". Combining Jing and Confluence can create a very simple but powerful platform to document your software systems and create how-to guides for your users.

This is an image taken using Jing that brings it all together: Chrome + Confluence + Jing + ObjectDock.

The Biggest [Fake] News Story

This week, a very public war of words erupted between John Stewart of The Daily Show and Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money. If it wasn't obvious to me before, but I now I realize two things: the media can be an important advocate for the public, and they failed miserably at that task.

[Unfortunately, Viacom isn't so progressive as to allow embedding of their video clip, but the full, unedited video is on their web site.]

I'm thankful that we now have so-called alternative news sources. One, unfortunately, is The Daily Show. It seems that John Stewart really cares about America. Cares in a way that allows him to ask the difficult questions and hold those responsible to account. If anything, I hope this financial crisis in the States helps people to realize the bias or poor job their news network of choice is offering, and also to take some responsibility for finding things out on their own.

I think Americans (including me) can blame their leadership for some of this blase attitude towards the truth. Its easy to blame W., who praised people like Michael Brown, head of FEMA during the Katrina fiasco. But lets not forget Clinton and Nixon.

But, of course, we need to take some responsibility ourselves. Here's a simple way to start. Before you forward an e-mail, usually one with a political agenda, but most e-mail forwards would do, double-check that it is factually accurate. I still get a bit angry every time my father forwards an e-mail that is totally inaccurate. A simple Google search, taking no more than 30 seconds of your time, can quickly debunk almost any e-mail you are about to forward. A good place to start is Snopes.