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Businesses have increasingly turned to online training methods in recent years, using technology as a way to better serve the needs of their employees’ professional development. This is especially true for those employees who need help with “hard skills,” such as computer training, operating machinery, or safety standards. Now, HR departments are starting to look to e-learning as a means of teaching “soft skills” or “people skills,” like communication, conflict resolution, management techniques, teamwork, and foreign language. This trend is still in its infancy, and some business are scratching their heads and asking, “Can you really learn people skills online?”

Employers are turning to e-learning to ensure that younger workers are developing the soft skills they need as they take over the work force. Baby boomers are slated to retire soon, and companies are worried that their experience and knowledge will go with them. Younger workers are accustomed to using computers, cell phones, and social networking websites in their everyday activities, and e-learning advocates hope that these two groups can be linked through online mentoring and training programs.

U.S. Bancorp has begun using a software package called Open Mentoring which connects workers across the organization for personalized training and mentoring services. Open Mentoring matches up employees based on demographic and competency information, and helps them connect through phone calls, online chats, and forums. The strategy may help preserve some of the organizational knowledge and memory that would otherwise be lost when experienced employees retire.

Employers are also using e-learning technologies to improve the language skills of their increasingly diverse workforces. Many companies who use an outsourcing employment model or who operate overseas are finding it increasingly important to provide language training to employees at locations all over the world. E-learning tools can help make that experience uniform and ensure the quality of teaching is the same across the company. One leader in this market is GlobalEnglish, which boasts clients such as Reuters, Mitsubishi, Nestle, General Motors, Canon, and Hilton International. They offer customized programs which will allow for specific problems or challenges to be addressed depending on the native language of the employee.

Online training has also come in handy for companies who need to give seminars on ethics or sexual harassment laws. During my tenure at a major publishing company with thousands of employees worldwide, we were required to participate in a web-based sexual harassment course. The 60-minute interactive class included a pretest, videos of real-life scenarios, test questions, and follow-up material that could be printed. Rather than attending a crowded meeting with a frustrated HR rep trying to shout over the chatter of bored employees, we were able to complete the training on our own schedule without the distractions of our immature coworkers.

So how do we know if online training is appropriate or effective for soft skills development? Many organizations are attempting to answer the same question. A number of online training models include follow-up meetings and sessions to allow trainees to interact and test their knowledge. This means that local HR reps have a chance to evaluate the effectiveness of the training, if only on an informal level. Metrics for soft skills learning are hard to define, but many programs use a survey/user satisfaction model to collect data and measure success. However, with the incorporation of more and more Web 2.0 tools into e-learning programs, people skills can indeed be exercised online. Between blogs, WIKI, social networking/bookmarking, and video sharing, employees really are able to communicate and learn in a group setting from the comfort of their cubes.

The election season is reaching a fever pitch, and this election year the candidates are reaching out to voters in unique ways. All of the top contenders have some type of online presence, though some have been more successful in their social networking efforts than others. They have created Facebook pages and groups, MySpace profiles, YouTube videos, and encouraged their supporters to organize through Meetup.com. So far, Republican Ron Paul has focused on Web 2.0 tools more than any other candidate, and he tops the list of candidate Google searches for 2007. He has certainly started a trend, but the question remains: will hits and Facebook friends translate into votes?

The candidates have used different means of reaching voters who hang out online, and with varying degrees of success. Democrat Barack Obama’s Facebook group, “One Million Strong for Barack” was created by a supporter, and infamously joined by Rudy Giuliani’s daughter. Other candidates have copied the verbiage, including TV personality Stephen Colbert, though to date the group is home to just over 400,000 Facebook members. The group is a grassroots effort run by supporters, and is not affiliated with Obama’s campaign. This is in contrast to the other candidates Facebook groups, which are calculated PR moves. Perhaps this puts Obama ahead of the curve when election time arrives.

Another frequently used site is YouTube, where the candidates have jointly posted over 2500 videos since last January (452 of those belong to Republican Mitt Romney, never one to be camera-shy). Perhaps the most entertaining of these comes from Mike Huckabee, who is clearly trying to capitalize on the recent endorsement from Chuck Norris, a.k.a. Walker, Texas Ranger. Huckabee asserts (with straight face) that “there’s no chin under Chuck Norris’ beard, only another fist.” It’s clear this ad is meant to appeal to the YouTube demographic, as I’m sure my grandmother wouldn’t laugh at this joke.

Perhaps the most influential of the Web 2.0 sites used by presidential candidates is Meetup.com, a networking site which allows users to connect with others in their communities with similar interests. Their website states: “We want to see the world’s people self-organize. We believe that people can change their world, or the world by organizing themselves into groups - Meetups - powerful enough to make a difference.” Ron Paul has had tremendous success with Meetup, and his approximately 82,000 supporters have organized 21,000 offline events to fund raise and generate support for him. Whether he wins or loses the nomination, his success using Meetup and other social networking sites will likely be emulated in future election campaigns.

Web analytics company Compete has created a tool to track the candidates and their successes and failures using online networking. Candidate Facetime breaks up the candidates by party and shows what percentage of their “hits” are on their official websites, how their hits stack up against their competitors, and how many total hours people have spent learning about them through their Web 2.0 efforts. November’s data shows Ron Paul as a clear Republican frontrunner when it comes to generating online buzz, while Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards are neck-and-neck for the Democrats.

As Mike Huckabee points out on his Facebook group, “I believe that the internet will play a huge role in the 2008 campaign and sites such as this are wonderful tools for people to come together and show their support for the candidate of their choice.” Right he is, especially when it comes to gathering support among younger, more wired voters. Or are they “voters” when all they’ve done to express their political beliefs is to post a candidate’s name to an online profile? Are these groups just a way for lazy voters to establish a political identity, or will they transform into actual support for these candidates? We’re about to find out.

A recent survey appearing in Health Affairs: The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere, shows that Americans find little satisfaction in the current health care system. The study focused on seven developed countries: Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States. In almost all categories, U.S. patients ranked themselves dead last. Americans have the lowest life expectancy, the highest percent of GDP spent on health care, and the highest infant mortality rate of the nations polled.

A whopping 32% of patients have experienced medical mistakes, where as only 16% of Dutch patients said the same. This could be a result of doctors’ complaints about not having access to medical records at the time of service. Only 49% of Americans are able to get an appointment with their physician when they’re ill, whereas 75% of New Zealanders are able to see their doctors when it counts most. Even more revealing, 34% of U.S. patients surveyed say that the health care system needs to be entirely rebuilt.

What can health care providers, including physicians, hospitals, government programs, and insurance companies do to combat this high level of dissatisfaction? Is there something short of a complete overhaul that will improve the health care experience of the average American? Perhaps providers can take a page out of the book of private business, where the ultimate goal is always improving the customer experience. In the few months, Talkibie has reported on some of the high tech solutions that many providers are using to give their patients the best possible care. These new services and technologies could solve some of the user frustrations with our current health care system.

As reported earlier this fall, a Canadian company called Myca has been giving patients access to their doctors through cell phone video conferencing. Canada ranked the lowest of all seven countries when it came to same or next-day appointments with doctors, with the U.S. a close second. The service allows subscribers and doctors to communicate visually through their phones, and conversations can be logged and incorporated into existing medical records. Prescriptions can even be assigned by email. This could be a major help to physicians who suffer from a constant backlog of appointments, and for patients with minor ailments who need medication but do not necessarily need to be seen face-to-face. Providers and patients currently using the service have seized a golden opportunity to streamline the antiquated protocol of our current health care system.

Patients may also turn to alternative online options to increase their satisfaction with the health care system. Microsoft is courting the disgruntled patient with its new HealthVault service, which debuted in October. The idea is that medical records can be stored online and shared with any health care providers who use the service, regardless of whether or not they’re your primary doctor, a specialist, or a surgeon. It’s easy to see how a service of this kind would reduce the rate of medical mistakes due to a lack of access to medical records. And Microsoft is not the only high tech company to offer this service. Google unveiled vague plans to host online medical records, which it says was inspired by the destruction of thousands of patient records during Hurricane Katrina.

The U.S. health care system most definitely needs some changes, and borrowing a few tricks from the internet technology world could potentially solve common problems that affect the patient experience. Innovators in both fields could work together to identify and address the concerns of patients, and by using a problem-solving process that focuses on the needs of the end-user, we just might avoid a total overhaul.

Web 2.0 technologies are often finding a place in the business world, and wiki is the latest tool that’s causing a sensation and pleasing companies to no end. Wikis can adapt to the requirements of many organizations and give teams the ability to share knowledge in a collaborative manner. However, as any IT department knows, you just might have a riot on your hands if a new technology is not implemented in the right manner. Organizations, no matter how innovative and creative, are slow to adapt to changes in process and reluctant to learn new skills. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to combat this attitude and make an enterprise wiki successful.

A wiki, as defined by the most successful of them all (Wikipedia), is “a type of computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages.” It is essentially an online database in the form of web pages that can be explored, edited, and shared by a number of people. Wikipedia, for better or worse, is increasingly the first source we turn to for knowledge of any sort, be it the birth date of a celebrity or an explanation of a Walt Whitman poem. Users of the site can write content and add details to pages within the database to increase the usefulness of the articles. The same principle is beginning to be adopted by companies looking to simplify their means of information-sharing within their intranet. Users could turn to an internal wiki to learn how to upgrade their software, access information about past projects, find human resources policies and forms, or suggest changes to procedures that will benefit multiple units within the enterprise.

Many well-known organizations have turned to wiki for information sharing. Discovery Communications, which is the parent company for Discovery Channel and its affiliates, created a wiki where viewers could provide feedback on programs, discuss shows with other viewers, upload videos, and even recommend new content to producers and executives. Boston College’s Gerald School of Information Management has also created a wiki for classes where students post ideas, essays, and suggest exam questions. Students have the opportunity to collaborate and learn from their peers in a manner which does not increase the workload for professors.

There are two major types of wikis that can be applied in a business setting, depending on an organization’s needs: suites generally include enterprise bookmarking, blogging, and tagging programs, while stand-alone wikis are stripped down to provide basic service. The need for suites depend on the type, size, and resources of the organization. The end-user or audience for the wiki must be the determining factor when you make a decision. Is this a group that is familiar with Web 2.0 technologies, or will the wiki be their first experience of this type? What are likely to be their goals in creating a wiki? If your audience is active, eager, and motivated, you’ll have an easier time implementing a wiki, and potentially an entire suite Web 2.0 tools. Regardless of what type of software is chosen, it’s very important that organizations keep the implementation simple, organic, and rewarding to contributors.

While it’s easy for a college professor to provide incentives to participate in a wiki (class credit could depend on the number and quality of posts), there are still ways to encourage participation within an enterprise. First, think about a tiered release, with high-level users such as IT professionals and managers acting as the “front line”. These users can get the ball rolling and supply the wiki with a solid foundation of information, forms, and documentation that other users will come to appreciate. Once a foundation is in place, other users can be incorporated into the wiki and they should be encouraged to modify and add to existing pages. Next, participation in the wiki could be added as a regular task to employee schedules or as a part of a performance evaluation. Negative consequences are always less effective than positive reinforcement.

Some popular wiki packages include BEA Systems’ AquaLogic, and Microsoft’s SharePoint, both of which fall into the “suite” category, and include other Enterprise 2.0 services. Stand-alone programs include Mediawiki (the software behind Wikipedia), Tikiwiki (which is open source for customization), and Dokuwiki. All have different features, strengths, and capabilities and your best choice depends on the needs of your organization. The benefits of using this type of collaborative technology are many, and more and more creative companies are turning to wikis as an easy and effective way to keep teams up-to-date on in-house knowledge. This is especially useful in high turnover jobs like customer service and support personnel. A wiki can capture the accumulated knowledge of workers and make it easily accessible to new employees. Reps might use the wiki to log particularly successful or challenging support calls, and the company can use this data to train new employees and improve their services. While projects (and even team members) come and go, wikis help prevent knowledge and experience from going with them. A good wiki can act as a giant brain for your organization, helping you learn from the mistakes of the past and allowing every team member to contribute to the successes of the future.

Let’s jump right to the point—not only is Web 2.0 real, it is the future of internet interaction, and business. As defined by Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is as follows – “A term often applied to a perceived ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving web applications to end users. Ultimately Web 2.0 services are expected to replace desktop computing applications for many purposes”. So what is the ongoing transition? What is meant by a full fledged computing platform? How will desktop appliances ever be replaced? This blog entry has the answers to these questions along with an in depth look at what is Web 2.0, and will give insight into the proper way to harness and make the most of this new internet movement.

The promise of Web 2.0 is delivered in the form of richer and more open technology. The application of this technology, with a focus on user experience and customer service, is helping companies achieve their desired expectations in regards to what the first dot-com-explosion could not deliver. These technologies, coupled with open source and collaborative development, are driving companies in all industries to take a closer look at how they are best using this technology to meet the needs of their business and provide the best user experience possible for their customers.

Web 2.0 is about customer service. If you find ways to make your products and services friendlier, easier to use, and, in some cases, impossible to live without, then embracing the new applications that are Web 2.0 will have a broadening effect throughout your entire organization. Many Web 2.0 technologies help businesses ensure that enhanced efficiency, combined with customer ease of use, can be achieved immediately.

Technologies such as weblogs, social networking, wikis, and podcasts (among numerous others) are becoming the technical norm, and imply significant change in web usage; change that will lead to the rise in economic value of the Web—surpassing the impact of the dot com boom of the late 1990’s.

So what are the applied characteristics of the most internet savvy and efficient (most “Web 2.0-ness”)? One must recognize, and harness data as a driving force. Open source development is providing innovation for the assembly of systems and sites by synergizing features from distributed and independent developers. Web 2.0 will allow for an open architecture, a virtual democracy if you will, that encourages users to add value to the application as they use it, all the while maintaining the ease-of-picking-up by early adopters. Social-networking, enhanced graphical interfaces, and delivery of applications entirely through a browser are a few of the necessary mediums for harnessing the internet shift that is Web 2.0.

The most influential sites (i.e. EBay, Craig’s List, Wikipedia, MySpace, Amazon.com, Google, Apple, and Yahoo) grasp the characteristics of Web 2.0 by employing the philosophy that e-businesses will grow in effectiveness the more people interact with them on a personal level. The unique features of e-business revolve around building applications and services—both which must be taken advantage of—that derive their power from the human connections and network effects that Web 2.0 will make possible.

So it is imperative, that companies of all shapes and sizes take a closer look at how Web 2.0 can help them. This starts by aligning business goals with the tools you have in place for accomplishing necessary objectives. If you are starting from ground zero, then you will want to have an audit done to help expose Web 2.0 opportunities and possibilities of new profit centers.

Whether or not you’re a beginner to internet businessing, or a veteran web provider, the concepts, applications, and techniques that make up the basis for Web 2.0 is something you must adhere to, in order to maintain and offer the most successful internet experiences to your consumers.

Communication is key and a WIKI is one way for a company to enhance and extend team collaboration from within. A WIKI is a website where content is contributed, edited and organized by its users. Contributing users can quickly create pages and add valuable content and links between them. This type of sharing was available with previous generations of collaborative technology although it did not have the ease of use and creative freedom that WIKIs provide. Groupware, document management and knowledge management systems typically impose more structure and administrative control; whereas WIKIs have more freedom yet still offer the necessary controls to ensure structure.

WIKIs really begin to shine when information needs to be shared in a team atmosphere. A good example of this is a corporate call center or help desk. The ability for phone representatives to build a powerful and fluid knowledge base provides a place where knowledge can be transferred and shared. By nature, WIKIs allow the community of users to keep information up to date, even if they lack technical website knowledge.

A company can take WIKIs to the next level by harnessing this organic knowledge base and syndicating it through RSS feeds, offering information in and out of the company. Imagine your customers accessing the same content through the real time web applications that your help desk or other support team use. RSS and WIKI technology are pretty straight forward. Together, they capture your company’s knowledge and create a distribution model covering other corners of your business where this information is needed.

Why WIKI? It can help your company organize and share information, particularly in areas where information is changing quickly or there is a rapid turnover resulting in a loss of critical knowledge. Add a touch of social networking to the mix and you now have a breeding ground for new ideas that could propel creativity in your company. There is no limit to how you can utilize this type of technology.

Where do you begin? To start, look at open-source options including MediaWiki (the software behind Wikipedia) or Confluence. Established products, such as Microsoft’s SharePoint Sever 2007, are bundling support for WIKIs into their products and are good options if you are using them in your environment today. Having a good understanding of who will use your WIKI, how users might consume the information, and what their challenges are will provide the blueprint for you to start building your own WIKI style knowledge-based system.

Many people who have been in the workforce for a few years have horror stories about their on-the-job training, or lack thereof. I am reminded of a recent visit to the post office, where I pointed out a mistake made by the counter clerk. She apologized, explaining that postal regulations had recently been changed by Congress, and all the retraining the post office employees had received was a typed sheet of 8 ½ x 11 paper. While we might expect a sub-par training program from our federal bureaucracy, it is a surprisingly common failing of businesses big and small. Many are attempting to address the issue by implementing e-learning and online training programs. These flexible programs give more freedom to workers to learn at their own pace and in their own methods. They can also save time, cut down on costs, and allow for more frequent training.

Though print materials are still the most common way that companies prepare their employees to perform essential tasks, e-learning is quickly becoming very popular. Synchronous programs provide lessons to groups of employees simultaneously, and everyone learns together. This can be beneficial if you want to provide training to people at different locations at the same time through e-conferencing technology. I participated in two training sessions this way, logging into a website to watch the instructor’s presentation and feeding audio through a telephone. However, asynchronous courses are more common, allowing each individual to log on and complete tasks at their leisure. Some common tools used in both types of programs include online discussion boards, text chats, screen/podcasts, games, and wikis. These types of interactive technologies can give employees a sense of freedom and participation in their training, encouraging them to dedicate themselves to the tasks they will learn and fully invest themselves in the program.

Some businesses are seeking professional help to implement online training programs. One company which specializes in the market is ej4, which provides pre-packaged or custom sales, compliance, or technology training programs. ej4 also offers testing, video production, guide materials, or will distribute customized sales materials to your e-learners. Their boast is that they can reduce your training costs and increase revenues. Software developers are also jumping on the online training bandwagon. HP’s learning center provides free online classes, how-to guides, business templates, and software seminars. In addition to resources on using their own products, HP has even expanded training offerings to Microsoft Publisher and Access, Adobe products, and CorelDraw. Small business owners can even access free courses on general topics like guerilla marketing, driving online sales, and time management at www.officeliveseminars.com.

The trend towards online and e-learning training is catching on for large and small businesses alike. Companies are finding that participation rates are higher than in traditional face-to-face training, and employees have their pick of larger course offerings to encourage self-improvement. Critics of e-learning point to the lack of face-to-face contact that is the essence of an educational experience; proponents of the system argue that “face-to-face” has a different meaning in our Web 2.0 culture. More and more of our daily “human” interactions actually take place through the conduit of the web. Is there something lost from taking the live person out the training process? Perhaps, but there is also something gained. When the responsibility of training is put in the hands of the employee, making it an opportunity instead of a chore, they gain the desire and drive to make the most of it.

Second Life (also known as SL) is a social networking site that has gone a step beyond other popular social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. This 3-D virtual world is managed by the citizens of Second Life, which according to the creators of the website, has grown to 5 million users.

In SL, people are able to create a new identity through their virtual characters and interact with other avatars from around the globe. They are able to build islands, homes and anything else they can dream up, attend events, fly to another country or do business with fellow users. Business transactions take place through dealing with Linden dollars that can then be translated into real money for “first life” spending.

Confused yet? Well, so are many other first time second lifers. There is definitely a learning curve involved with SL, that many critics are pointing out as a drawback of the site, saying this difficulty in getting started results in a low number of participants who could possibly be targeted by marketers. Yet, despite the critics many advertisers and marketing departments are taking interest in this latest online trend and looking at Second Life as a new place to reach potential customers.

Toyota is one example of a company who has taken the leap into SL in hopes that its “in world” marketing campaign will pay off. They have created a virtual dealership where they sell all three models of the (computer generated) Scion XB. Buyers can customize their cars any way they would like, a feature which Toyota hopes will keep residents coming back for more.

While Toyota charges for its vehicles, Nissan opened a dealership in which they dispense Sentras like bubblegum, free to residents via an enormous vending machine.

And it’s not just cars that are being sold and dispensed in SL. Residents can purchase anything from a Starbucks latte or Heineken beer to a Nike sneaker. Vogue, a publication of Conde Nast, has creatively marketed their brand by dropping virtual magazines throughout SL. This feature, when clicked on by a resident, brings them immediately to the Vogue Web site.

Sunbelt Technology has created an island where residents can meet to discuss computer related issues. There are several areas of the island ranging from a pavilion for product awareness to an auditorium for lectures and conferences to an underwater world for beginners of Second Life.

Even charities and nonprofit organizations are looking at SL to get their message across. Adventure Ecology, a UK based charity, in an effort to spread the word on global warming, submerged under water, low lying areas in the world such as the Netherlands and Tokyo.

Second Life, like many other social networking sites, provides companies with the means to tap into new markets, test products and ideas and interact with customers in new and innovating ways. Today, Second Life has about 5 million users who interact with this site. As this market grows, you can be sure that the number of companies who want to interact in this virtual world will grow as well.

To learn more about Second Life please visit www.secondlife.com