Web 2.0

Almost 400 million entries in Google for this topic. Thought I'd mention it.

Microsoft Groove

I've only just "discovered" Groove now that it's part of the Microsoft 2007 Office suite. It seems to do all you'd expect a collaborative teamworking tool would do. It lets you work within a virtual office whether online or offline and independent of any network or server. You can share project folders and files, calendars, tools and data of all sorts and keep in touch through synchronous chat and asynchronous discussions. I'm not yet clued up on Sharepoint and I've only flirted with Infopath which apparently came from the same stable as Groove. I suppose Lotus Notes users will find all this to be very much yesterday's news, but for a non-techie like me it is good to be able to master and control a system like this without a significant learning curve.

For remote workgroups such as the Committee of the eLearning Network, and for projects teams working on Optimum Learning assignments, it could well be the solution to a number of problems and above all reduce a dangerous over-reliance upon email.

Oh dear, am I becoming a microsoftophile?

Munich Air Disaster 1958

It's hard to believe that almost half a century has passed since the unspeakably tragic loss of the Manchester United team on Thursday 6th February 1958. I was at Demesne County Infant school in Langley, a council estate near Manchester. I had no interest in football up to that point. When Miss Brown, the Headmistress (later honoured as Elsie Brown MBE) called a special assembly, I naturally assumed it was to sing "Happy Birthday to me" since I'd turned 7 the day before. but when this dignified and controlled woman wept on the stage before several hundred children, I must have "egodecentred". I knew for the first time in my life that something bigger than self defines the world around you. Emotionally, if not geographically, I've been a "red" ever since.

Frank confessions

I have to come clean right now - this is the third Blog I've initiated. I actually forgot where I left the others, so if anyone comes across an ageing, disconnected old blog that bears my name, please throw it a crust or something.

Some people I respect and admire are prolific bloggers. As for me, I never caught the discipline to maintain a diary, and even my ubiquitous "To Do Lists" swiftly become separated from the tasks I truly have in hand. But one thing I am is a voracious (perhaps omnivorous) learner. And when someone as smart as Clive Shepherd announces, "In 2006, I learned more from blogging than from any other activity", I have to pay attention.

So here comes #3. Be gentle with it good reader, and if ever you find it wandering too far from its creator, give me a nudge.