Google's ambitious world changing project winners

Here are the results of Google's ambitious world changing project, I blogged about in 2009

It was neat to see the Khan Academy as one of the "world changing" winners. It will be neat to see where these projects go!

Project 10¹⁰⁰ Winners

We are pleased to announce the winners of Google’s Project 10¹⁰⁰.

Thousands of people from more than 170 countries submitted over 150,000 ideas. From that group, we narrowed it to the final 16 ideasfor public vote.

The following five ideas received the most votes and are the winners of Project 10¹⁰⁰. Over the past 12 months, we have reviewed concrete proposals to tackle these ideas. We are pleased to give a total of $10 million to five inspiring organizations working on solutions to each of these global challenges:

Idea: Make educational content available online for free

Project funded: The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization that provides high-quality, free education to anyone, anywhere via an online library of more than 1,600 teaching videos. We are providing $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate their core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages.

Idea: Enhance science and engineering education

Project funded: FIRST is a non-profit organization that promotes science and math education around the world through team competition. Its mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders by giving them real world experience working with professional engineers and scientists. We are providing $3 million to develop and jump start new student-driven robotics team fundraising programs that will empower more student teams to participate in FIRST.

Idea: Make government more transparent

Project funded: Public.Resource.Org is a non-profit organization focused on enabling online access to public government documents in the United States. We are providing $2 million to Public.Resource.Org to support the Law.Gov initiative, which aims to make all primary legal materials in the United States available to all.

Idea: Drive innovation in public transport

Project funded: Shweeb is a concept for short to medium distance, urban personal transport, using human-powered vehicles on a monorail. We are providing $1 million to fund research and development to test Shweeb’s technology for an urban setting.

Idea: Provide quality education to African students

Project funded: The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is a center for math and science education and research in Cape Town, South Africa. AIMS’ primary focus is a one-year bridge program for recent university graduates that helps build skills and knowledge prior to Masters and PhD study. We are providing $2 million to fund the opening of additional AIMS centers to promote graduate level math and science study in Africa.

My Interview with McGraw Hill on Distance Education and Online Technologies

This past year I was interviewed in the "Thought Leader" section of McGraw Hill's Principles of Management Newsletter. In the interview I respond to the following questions regarding distance education and online technologies:

• How did you come to do work in distance education?
• What is your favorite distance learning activity or experience?
• How does distance learning enrich your life … your career... as opposed to traditional in-class teaching?
• Describe a “zinger” that unexpectedly challenged you in your distance teaching? How did you address it and what were the results?
• What are your distance learning principles for success?
• Is there one distance learning principle you hold most dear, that you will always do? Is there one thing you will never do, no matter what, in distance education?
• How do you see distance courses changing over the next 5-10 years?
• What are your hopes for the future of distance learning in higher education?

Click Here to Read the Article

Google Vs. Apple - Who is better for the internet?

I was tweeting these thoughts but it's too complex for a series of tweets/sound bites so here is a blog post to elaborate. First the facts. Both Apple and Google are Corporations and therefore have the goal of making profit for their shareholders. Both are doing everything possible to make their shareholders money so there is no good guy/bad guy scenario, it's just economics. However, there is a distinct advantage for the consumer and the evolution of the internet regarding Google's business model vs. apple's business model. This is because of how these companies make their money. Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company and their mode of delivery is the interwebs. Their goal is to get as many people online as possible AND make the online experience as awesome and cheap as possible so they will stay online longer. period. The more people are online the more money they will get from Google Ads. This is how they make 97% of their money and since most people don't even know that fact, I think that just shows that their ads are not so annoying as to bother people surfing the interwebs. Google doesn't care if people are on a mac or pc or really what browser they are using as long as the browser displays ads. They don't make any money from selling Chrome or Android, etc. Those are actually free and open source tools that anyone can use. Motorola can thank Google for the free Android OS that they built their phone on. Yes, these tools serve google's money making purposes in the long run because the android OS makes the internet more accessible, and that's where they want people to be, but they are still free and open and high quality, which makes for a good competitive environment where consumers win. Companies that make money from selling proprietary tools at high cost don't like a company like google who pretty much gives them away in exchange for the hope that you will click on their ads some day. I personally think thats a fair exchange.

Apple is a different company with a completely different way of doing business. Apple makes money not from advertisements, but from selling cutting edge software, hardware, and media. They also sell a computing experience that they believe deserves a premium price tag. Unlike Google, whose main interest is getting people online to click ads, Apple wants people online to buy their media primarily through itunes (music, movies, books, computers, etc). So Apple has to be thinking, "how can we get the most amount of people to buy our media?" Solution = Iphone-like OS and App store. This allows them to control the entire experience from what apps go on the system to whether or not flash will work in the browser. Their method to get what they want means a closed system of control in which they call all the shots. The method for google to get what they want = an open and free internet. I think Apple makes some awesome products, but I still like choices. Though google and apple are very different companies, they both affect the evolution of the internet. Google's ad driven approach creates a much more open internet ecosystem. Apple's app store approach creates a user friendly experience, but a more closed-off internet, in which apple calls all the shots with their app approval system. Which company do you think is better for the internet?

Google's New Real-Time Search Streams Breaking News and Live Twitter Updates

From lifehacker, "It's really amazing to see live updates in search results, but there's plenty of people that don't give a hoot about what the folks on Twitter or Facebook are talking about. It will also be interesting to see how Google keeps the signal-to-noise ratio down when huge news breaks and people everywhere are blogging, posting, and sometimes unintentionally spreading false information." See Video of new search in action:

A new kind of computer - A new generation of computing - Google Chrome OS

The power of web apps has ushered in a new generation of computing. Web apps like gmail, youtube, lala, pandora, mint, blogger, wordpress, google maps, netflix, twitter, facebook etc have us all glued to the internet. This is good news for Google. Ever wonder why google gives away almost all of their web apps for free? Because they want you online! Personally, I consider that a fair trade. I get their free apps and in exchange I tolerate Google Ads and sometimes find them helpful unlike random commercials on TV, which DVR's are killing off. Anyway, Google wants everyone to be online all the time and they want that experience to be as awesome as possible because the longer people are online, the more they will see Google Ads, which is how they make 95% of their money. To be honest, google should just start giving everyone a computer on their 16th birthday, kind of like Gillette does with razors. All that to say, Google isn't giving away computers, but they do want to make them cheap and they want them to fly on the internet. Google is working on developing a new computer that runs Google Chrome OS that is soley designed for the internet. It will be centered around SPEED and SECURITY. They are doing this because 90% of the stuff we want to do on the computer is all done on the internet and they like it that way. Google also thinks storing data on your personal computer is old-school so these computers won't do that. Your thinking "HUH?" Google thinks it should all be done in the cloud on secure servers. I know what you are thinking "what about security?!" Well, the facts are that if you are on a PC and you are connected to the internet, chances are the data on your PC is actually less secure than it would be on server protected by million dollar security systems. What's more secure, your house or Fort Knox? Think of cold hard cash vs electronic funds. Some people love to pay with cash and will only feel secure doing so. They hate the idea of online banking because what if it gets hacked? In addition, this person will also feel the need to keep all their mp3's physically located on a personal computer along with all their secure financial information. If that is you, this whole idea will not interest you (at least for several more years). Also, the Google Chrome OS is not for everyone unless technology advances so quickly that it becomes possible to do real hardcore video and graphics editing on the internet with web apps. Seems like too much processing power would be needed at this point, but in the future who knows?

I think the idea is interesting and this is what I love about Google. They are always pushing the status quo and thinking outside of the box. I'm not sure how this will go, but they are challenging people and companies to truly think different and they are doing something about it with their actions. Check out this video on Chrome OS to learn more about it. What do you think about it? Do you think this is the future of desktop computing? Matthew Murray from PC Mag has an interesting article about that topic here. How do mobile apps fit into this equation? Are traditional desktops old school? Do you trust the cloud or do you need your personal hard drive? I think I would buy one if it were $99 or less and I would use it at first just to explore the possibilities. Then I would blog about it :-)

Google Wave First Impressions

I've been using Google Wave for a couple weeks now and can see how the Wave could be a home run like google's email system, GMAIL or a "swing and a miss" like Google's social network, Orkut. I say Orkut is a swing and a miss, because it's not a strike out. There's still a lot more pitches to hit. A swing and a miss is not necessarily about the idea but about the adoption and whether people will buy into it. The idea behind Google wave is quite genius, makes a lot of sense, and moves the evolution of online collaboration forward whether it succeeds or stagnates. I personally think Google Wave resembles a Wiki with real-time editing abilities, more-so than it does email, though it can be used for both, which makes explaining it a little tricky. It combines instant messenger, discussion boards, emails, and wikis into one platform. It's one of those systems that can be used for very simple things like Instant Messaging as well as complex things like real-time wiki editing in which 10 people are contributing to the document. One can see the more powerful aspects of Wave in a large group collaboration setting. If you haven't done that yet, then the big idea might escape you. I personally like using Wave and found that it has already been a helpful tool in collaborating with my colleagues on a logo design for an online program at BGSU. I enjoy how easy it is to upload images and comment on each others uploads. Wave is still in Preview (pre-beta) so it wouldn't be right for me to go on about all the bugs I've found at this point. Once it's in Beta, I'll have a more in depth post on the bugs. The point of a preview is to get people using it so that Google can work out the bugs and open it up to larger groups. I really think online education organizations should pursue Google Wave and pilot it now. If any Google Engineers are reading this blog, please contact me as I know of at least 1 Graduate program at Bowling Green State University that would pilot Google Wave as the main collaborative tool the students would use for the program. I'm sure great research will come of it and you know we are only about 1.5 hours south of you.

A couple things I'd like to see added to Google Wave:

1. I like GMAIL so much that I'd like Wave to notify my Gmail when a Wave has been updated. I know Wave can be used like email, but currently I can only wave to people that have wave accounts, so I'll keep using GMAIL for email until then.
   
2. I'd also like to see the GMAIL chat feature (text, audio, video) integrated into Google Wave. Maybe wave could deliver a 10+ person video chat? Sometime people just want to chat and not type anything or clutter up the Wave.
   
3. I'd like to see a Google Wave Plugin/Extension Website similar to Firefox's Plugin Website. Please make it "Firefox" easy to find and implement plugins/bots from within wave. For that matter, tell the Chrome people to do that too, because that is the main thing holding me back from jumping deeper into Chrome. I really like the Chrome Browser, it just lacks the plugins. [Edit: I found this Google Wave Bots Wiki, which lists the known bots/plugins for Google Wave]
   
4. Make it easier to embed any code, similar to how most wikis, blogger, and other blog sites work.

The lead engineer's of Google Wave said that Wave is what email would be if it were designed today. However, Wave will seem strange to someone if they go into it with an idea of what they think it is. Some people think of it as email and it could be. Others will think of it as an instant messenger and it could be. Others might think of it as a wiki and it could be. That said, schools should take notice, pilot it, and give feedback to Google. I'm liking it so far, but I am also kind of geeky.

Google's World Changing Project -- You can vote!

Google started a project last year in which they gathered ideas from all over the world on how to best change the world for the better and now people are voting on them. What idea from the list do you find most promising? Which ones should Google make happen? You tell them. Your vote for one of these ideas will help their advisory board choose up to 5 projects to fund, at which point they'll launch an RFP process to identify the organization(s) that are best suited to implementing them. Check them out and vote here -- http://www.project10tothe100.com/vote.html

Titles of Potential Projects:

1. Collect and organize the world's urban data
2. Build better banking tools for everyone
3. Encourage positive media depictions of engineers and scientists
4. Work toward socially conscious tax policies
5. Provide quality education to African students
6. Make government more transparent
7. Create real-time natural crisis tracking system
8. Help social entrepreneurs drive change
9. Make educational content available online for free
10. Drive innovation in public transport
11. Create more efficient landmine removal programs
12. Build real-time, user-reported news service
13. Create real-world issue reporting system
14. Enhance science and engineering education
15. Create genocide monitoring and alert system
16. Promote health monitoring and data analysis

Wolfram Alpha - Making the world's knowledge computable - Now What?

See ya later great knowledge memorizers of the world, and hello great knowledge appliers of the world. Is it me or are the people inhabiting this third rock from the sun, connecting, computing, and collecting knowledge like nothing we've ever seen before. Well, except for maybe the time we humans tried building that Tower of Babel, which ended up not working out so well. Introducing.... Wolfram Alpha, a powerful computational knowledge engine that seeks to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by ANYONE. Connect this to a mobile device and we become walking and talking systematic knowledge carriers. We've had access to knowledge via the internet for quite some time, but this immediate access to systematic knowledge is something a little newer and worth pondering. I wonder if teachers will FINALLY stop creating tests that assess our students ability to memorize facts and start testing the application of those facts to solve real world problems. I'm especially looking at Universities to take up this challenge. With tools like Wolfram Alpha and Google Squared available to us, educational institutions should start building curriculum with the highest levels of Bloom's Taxonomy in mind. Maybe instructional designers could start with the fact that humans have access to just about all the available knowledge in the world and build from there. It sounds kind of funny, but it's true. This doesn't mean everyone understands the knowledge, but for the first time in history we do have easy access to it. Therefore, it is crucial we teach students where to find the knowledge, and then help them develop the skills to apply, analyse, synthesize, and evaluate it. We need to re-think assessment and skill acquisition for this day and age in this Knowledge Economy. It's time for schools to build curriculum that challenge us to really engage in the application of knowledge and not the memorization of definitions, forumulas, and factoids. That's lazy instruction. Yes, there is a place for memorizing in education...It is a good idea for teachers to memorize their students' names and interests. Personally, I don't care how great of a memorizor my accountant is. I want to know if that person can think about whole systems and solve financial problems that can save me money. What does it mean for you to have access to the world's systematic knowledge? How will you apply it? What does it mean for schools? How can they apply tools like Wofram Alpha and Google Squared to their curriculum. What does it mean for businesses? What do you think?

VoxOx - One service to unify them all?

I thought this service looked interesting and potentially useful. Teachers educating students in the information economy know that their are tons of different ways to communicate and engage students in the learning process, so perhaps a service that unites all communication methods into one central location might be useful. VoxOX goes after Skype and the VoIP market while attempting to connect our interconnected world of email, text messaging, social networks, etc. It seems like a helpful idea, but I don't know if people will be willing to take the time to input all of their communication networks into this service as the quality is still an unknown. Also, web 2.0 apps live and die by their community and this one is still small since it's just beginning. Will it gain momentum?

On an aside, since google just added video chat to gmail and they are spear heading the android project, I am inclined to centralize most of my communications via google, however, I know this solution leaves out social networks for the most part but that might be ok. What other reasons are there to try out a solution like VoxOx?

from the VoxOx site:
VoxOx.com | Blog

VoxOx is the first ever "Universal Communicator Service" that unifies all of today's key communication channels - voice, video, Instant Messaging (IM), text, social media, e-mail, and content sharing - into a single, intuitive interface that gives you control of your contacts, conversations and most importantly, your interconnected lifestyles, both now and in the future! It combines the benefits of VoIP solutions, interoperable IMs, Web services and social networking aggregators, and much more at no cost.

GMAIL just got cooler -- Video Chatting!

Just when I didn't think gmail could get any better, they go and add video chatting inside of gmail. As an elearning professional, I love the concept. Communicating online is a huge part of the learning process and humanizing and centralizing our modes of communication makes it that much more effective. If I were the CIO of a university or company, I would definitely explore using GMAIL apps as the communication centerpiece of my organization. I'd also try to meet with reps from google to push the envelope and build a full scale Learning management system. Also, I could see this having some huge implications for Google's open source Android mobile phone operating system and the enhancement of mobile learning. Check out this vid and try it out. Let us know what you think of it.

Google's Project 10^100 - Ideas that will change the world

Thanks to Connie Molnar for the info about Project 10^100, which is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.

About the Project

Q: What is Project 10¹⁰⁰? A: Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world, in the hope of helping as many people as possible.

Q: Why is Google doing this? A: The short answer is that we think helping people is a good thing, and empowering people to help others is an even better thing. Here's the long answer.

Q: How many ideas are you funding? A: We have committed $10 million to fund up to five ideas selected by our advisory board.

Q. Why the name 10^100? A: 10¹⁰⁰ is another way of expressing the number "googol," a one followed by one hundred zeroes. Our company's very name expresses our goal of achieving great results through smart technology that starts small and scales dramatically over time to have a tremendous long-term impact. Project 10¹⁰⁰ is a similar attempt to produce those kinds of scalable results by harnessing our users' insights and creativity. We don't know what ideas would help the most people. This project's premise is that maybe you do.

Check out this video and don't forget to vote.

Google and the Brain

Thanks to Connie Molnar, Director of COBL at BGSU, for sharing this article with me. I've always known google to be an innovative company and I really enjoy their free tech products such as their search engine, gmail, google docs, google maps, GOOG-411, etc. Their products assist millions of people in various ways, but is it possible they are making people smarter too? Check out this intriguing article.

Study: Google does a brain good - CNN.com

Can Google make you smarter? Is the more you Yahoo, the better? A new study suggests that searching online could be beneficial for the brain.
Searching online triggers areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

Searching online triggers areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning.

A study at the University of California, Los Angeles, measured brain activity of older adults as they searched the Web.

"There's so much interest in exercising our minds as we age," said the researcher, Dr. Gary Small, a professor at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "One result of this study is that these technologies are not all bad. They may be good in keeping our brains active."

To study what brains look like when people are searching the Internet, Small recruited two groups of people: one that had minimal computer experience and another that was Web savvy.

Members of the technologically advanced group had more than twice the neural activation than their less experienced counterparts while searching online. Activity occurred in the region of the brain that controls decision-making and complex reasoning, according to Small's study, which appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Google Chrome - Day 2

I'll keep this post short and sweet. This is my take on the Google Chrome web browser after one full day.  It's very fast!  Google chrome menevers the web at high speeds. Web pages render incredibly quick and media looks good on the browser.  It is lightweight, opens pretty quick, and the tabs are well designed. I can seeminly have 30 tabs open and not slow down my system.  Of course Google apps runs extremely fast in the browser, which is nice since I use many of them.   I like how the Chrome combines the URL address bar and the search engine into one mechanism.  The obvious elephant in the room is the fact that Chrome lacks plugins!  What you see is what you get and not much more. With Firefox, you get a sweet web-browser and hundreds of options to customize it to your liking.  I'll keep using it for a while to see how it improves and how it affects my time online.  

Google launches Chrome - A new open source web browser

This is going to be interesting! One of the most innovative and wealthiest technology companies in the world has developed a new open source web browser called Google Chrome that they will be releasing to the public for Beta use on Sept 2nd (UPDATE!! Download it here). This is some pretty big news as far as I am concerned as I believe a web-browser environment will replace the desktop environment as the primary environment for computing in the future. We already spend so much time on our web-browsers watching videos, managing stocks, banking, buying, designing, taking online classes, etc that as bandwidth increases we may be able to do even more online. It will be interesting to see what this browser is like. I must confess it will take an incredibly amazing tool to pull me away from Firefox 3 (FF3). One of the critical components to any successful open source endeavor is the community of support for the technology and FF3 has a HUGE community that continues to build and optimize the browser. Will there be enough community support for Chrome? Will they be able to make add-ons for everything under the sun like FF3. Will Chrome be compatible with FF3 plugins? Even as I write this blog, I am using the FF3 add-on Scribefire to write this directly in my browser from the Google Blog page. I look forward to testing out the browser tomorrow and offering my feedback.

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

A fresh take on the browser
9/01/2008 02:10:00 PM
At Google, we have a saying: “launch early and iterate.” While this approach is usually limited to our engineers, it apparently applies to our mailroom as well! As you may have read in the blogosphere, we hit "send" a bit early on a comic book introducing our new open source browser, Google Chrome. As we believe in access to information for everyone, we've now made the comic publicly available -- you can find it here. We will be launching the beta version of Google Chrome tomorrow in more than 100 countries.

Distance learning and gas prices

I thought the results for a Google search I performed on "distance learning + gas prices" was pretty interesting. What do you think? Since most subjects can be taught online effectively and driving to class is becoming more $$$ for students and teachers, people are looking for online options. I have always said that online courses and programs add immense value to the traditional brick and mortar university (See University 2.0) and this is just another example. Online courses can be flexible, accessible, engaging, interactive, and very personal. As students continue to discover both the monetary and educational benefits of online learning, they will continue to look for the option as they hunt for the right university. Those universities that are paying attention to the needs of modern day students will benefit. BGSU, my university, which has been around since 1910, seems to get it as they have been adding more online courses every year since 2000. Check out our online degrees

Scour - leveraging the search engine to empower and pay the user

The idea is simple. Search, Contribute, Reward. Search for a topic using the Scour search engine (it searches google, yahoo, and msn), then rate the links with a thumbs up or thumbs down, then accumulate points for your contribution and get rewarded with money. It is an interesting idea to move the search engine forward and I wonder how well it will catch on. Like any web 2.0 idea, the community base is key to success and maybe the monetary reward may be enough incentive to boost the community participation. We will see. Overall, it sounds interesting and I'll check it out. Let us know what you think of it. Scour - The social search engine

Google goes 3D with Google Lively

Google Lively is Google's move into the 3d world. One thing that is neat about google lively is that after you download the installer, it runs in the browser and allows people to place their virtual rooms on their blog or websites. Therefore, I could put a link to my virtual world on TerenceOnline and you could meet me in the 3d realm of my blog. That's kind of neat. Another neat feature about the system is the kind of animation the characters can do, specifically fighting moves. It's kind of funny to watch a bunch of avatars throw each other around in a virtual space, though I'm not sure there is much educational value in it. If you are interested in 3d worlds, go ahead and check it out. This is Beta so they are working out the bugs. How do you think it compares to other virtual environments such as Second Life and Small Worlds? What educational advantages do these environments provide for students? Let us know what you think.

Info from the website:

Create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms you design

Requires Windows Vista/XP with Internet Explorer or Firefox
By using Lively you agree to these Terms

Create your own virtual space

Chat and interact with your friends in rooms you design

Express yourself

Customize your avatar and stream personal photos and video

Add your room to your site

Invite your friends to chat and help decorate

[an island in google lively]

launch of app store for iPhone could revolutionize the mobile world

Jobs: App Store launching with 500 iPhone applications, 25% free - Engadget

Tim Bajarin at Creative Strategies said, "When IBM introduced the PC, it was good, but it didn't take off until people started discovering the software." It's these apps then, he adds, that will "dramatically differentiates the iPhone" from Treos and BlackBerrys. Indeed, while consumers are focused on the launch of the iPhone 3G device, it's the App Store which has analysts in such a tizzy.

Imagine your computer with only an operating system and a couple software programs. You wouldn't think it is all that great. That situation is somewhat analogous to the mobile phone world in many respects until now. With the introduction of an application store for the iphone, mobile technology should dramataically enhance. Though 33% of the apps will be games, the development of apps for the phone will revolutionize the mobile lifestyle. It will be interesting to see how Google's pet project, Android, will compare. Android is an open source application that will run on many different cell phone brands and they have opened the code up for people to develop apps for Android. In fact, google is giving away 10 million dollars to the top 50 developers of apps for Android. Who do you think will be a bigger player in the mobile technology world? I typically lean toward open source solutions whenever practical for educational reasons.



[iphone apps store]

PB Wiki steps up their game. Will Google Sites respond?

It appears that PB Wiki is fiercely competing with the Goliath that is Google and their new product, Google Sites. I really enjoy both products and have implemented them both in different ways at BGSU. We have been using the PB Wiki in our training programs and Google Sites for our own project management organization. I think wiki's are awesome collaboration tools. I wrote a post a few days ago about ways I thought Google Sites could improve their system and it appears that PB Wiki already has pretty much all of the feature I said should be integrated into Google Sites, so I hope the competition drives excellence for both companies. Sometimes I wonder if Google is wishing they would have bought PB Wiki instead of JotSpot, but I guess they still could if they wanted to. I mean it is Google! The reason I like what Google Sites is doing is because it has the the patented ease of use guarantee and it integrates well with other Google apps we use. I am typically a fan of their web apps and they usually integrate search technology like no one else. However, PB Wiki is looking a bit more sophisticated at this point and I hope the Google Sites development team is working hard to match their features very soon. For example, the new PB Wiki provides page level access, page folders and folder access controls, as well as a new sleek interface. Check out this video of the new PB Wiki 2.0 and let us know what you think.

Google Sites - Some quick thoughts to improve the system

I am liking Google Sites as a team intranet wiki collaboration tool. However, there are a couple of things that need improvement and I'm hoping people from google read this.

1. First and most importantly, they need to make the page management system better!
   
   • For example, they need to allow people to create folders to organize the pages we create, instead of just a huge list of created pages. I know google is anti creating folders and I am fine with that since I too prefer the search engine for organizing and retrieving, but they need to provide a search engine to find the page I am looking for to link to.
     
2. They need to enable each user the ability to add a list widget to a page so that people can add co-workers' lists to their page and have an updated list of everyone's projects on their page. In addition, it would be nice to have the ability for individual lists to export their lists to 1 Master Team list. Therefore, everyone could keep their individual project lists on their pages and it exports to a team list. It would also be neat if it could take list information and generate a graphical diagram.
   
3. The Google Sites Start Page is pretty weak. It would be cool to have all of my RSS Feeds there and i'd like to be able to upload them in one fell swoop with an OPML file. It should be something more like Netvibes or at least iGoogle.
4. Why not incorporate email with Google Sites?
5. More page privacy options.

Though I have these requests, it is a very cool product and I look forward to see how they improve it over time. More thoughts coming soon as I discover more about the inner workings of the system...