2010/06/17
Do you see what I did there?
Being the free technical support for ones family is something I have tried to avoid over the years. However, I have a reciprocal arrangement set up with my aunt. I get exercise classes (specifically Spinning) at The Pilates Studio and in return I help them out with their online presence. The training is because I’m part of a group of 6 nutjobs who are riding the six hundred-odd miles from Blackpool Tower, an hour north of Manchester, to the Eiffel Tower. Yes, that one. The one in Paris.
I currently have the Studio set up with a Joomla install and I do the updates to their timetable and price lists on a monthly basis. It isn’t much work, but it is tedious and it’s very much an old site in need of bit of work. I’ve often considered using Theme Builder to replicate the simple design and set up a Confluence 10 user license for them so that they can update the content themselves. They are familiar with Office, so they could use Confluence and import their timetables created using Microsoft Word, or they could embed the word document and simply update the word document, and the updates, as if by magic, would appear in the page. They could also simply login and press the big edit button. These are things I appreciate about Confluence, it is easy to edit and add content. Not only that, but it’s versatile. It’s a wiki, but with a nice theme builder skin, it’s an easy to use, easy to update company web site.
It’s something I’m seriously considering. My biggest fear is I’ll set up Confluence, spend a Saturday moving the content over and theming it, and then they will not update themselves. I use this software on a daily basis, I see the potential in it, I’m of a certain age and I’m a massive geek. Of course I think it’s easy. My experience of training people how to use Confluence tells me something different. It isn’t as “trivial” or easy as we massive geeks might think. While many find it easy to use and understand the potential, there are also some who do not. When training these lads and lasses how to use Confluence or other Atlassian products, I need to have my wits about me, I need to be able to explain in an easy to understand manner how easy it is, but more importantly why they should use it, by providing concrete scenarios and examples that they can relate to.
Tonight after an hour of spinning, and subsequently trying not to pass out, I explained to John (manager of the Studio) how to use Facebook and Twitter. And it was less of an explanation of how to use them, but a way of telling him why he should use it. I’ve been trying to get them to use both for sometime. And at first the response was, “Telling people I’m eating pizza, what a waste of time, how is that going to help the business?”. When I suggested it was free marketing (I'm eating pizza, better get my ass down to the studio and do some spinning tomorrow and work off some of these cheese heavy cals! LOL) there was more interest. And today, after some more detailed explanation of how the whole social networking thing works and how it could help them out, I think I have got buy in.....
Clearly this isn’t the silver bullet, getting people to use unfamiliar software is much more than simply telling them it’s good for them and showing them some how-to. There is much more to this. If you read my bletherings and you are trying to get people in your organisation to use Confluence, or indeed any software, I’m interested to know your thoughts on how you’ve been able to convince those who were initially against using Confluence to change their minds and embrace it.
2010/06/25
I spent this weekend in Brussels. I'm a travel freak, I live to travel. Trips away from the quiet screen-based existence of my office are marvelous for time to reflect without the distraction of housework and IM. Each trip gives me opportunity to see different things and meet new people. Meeting people and working with them is something I miss from my teaching days. It might sound cheesy, but I still love it when I'm able to convey a difficult concept to someone and they actually get it and use it to improve their life in some way. When I taught at a college in Manchester, I worked with people from really tough areas of the city, providing them with skills to either get a job or move on to uni. Working with talented people and see them produce amazing things with some of the few skills and knowledge you've imparted - there's really nothing that compares to it.
In my current job and in the visits I make for training purposes, I particularly enjoy the opportunity to meet people who are using Confluence or learning to do so. Each time I visit people for training sessions, I get a new insight into the way people interact with the system, their reactions, their fears and questions. Each visit changes some small aspect of my approach. It's a constant system of change and refinement. There's new things to learn and incorporate as a result of each training session.
I haven't been to Brussels since I did my masters, part of which was International Law and Diplomacy. It was a trip to the EU to get us ready for our careers in Diplomacy. The weather was pretty gray then, even for me, a lass from the rainy north of England.
Here's the view from my hotel window for this trip.
Mid summer in Brussels
I spent some of Saturday having a look at Brussels and trying out some of the local delicacies.
Mmmmmm Frites.
And yes, they were as bad as they looked and ended up in the trash. I guess for fries, they weren't bad, but because I'm still in training for my epic bike ride, I couldn't face them.
Out of keeping with the healthy living was the Belgian girls beer I tried. I couldn't resist. Pink beer girls! And it tasted like a beerpop. In a lady's can size too.
Beer for girls.
Apart from that here's the plane I took there and back:
And the interesting illustration of what to do in the event of crash landing while carrying the elephant man as a baby.
Badly drawn baby
I wish the camera on my phone was able to capture the full extent of the badly drawn nature of this illustration.
