Friday, March 5, 2010

In 1955, Chevrolet introduced the Nomad, a vehicle that offered great mobility for those adventurous people who wanted to explore the highways of America.

Fifty-five years later, Serebra has today introduced its own "vehicle" for mobility: Serebra Nomad for exploring the highways of mobile education.

Customer usability testing of Nomad has begun, and preliminary reaction has validated the application’s stability, performance, and compatibility with Serebra’s learning management system, Serebra Campus.

Mobile users can now log-in to the Serebra system to access their mobile learning materials, search their training calendar, register for live events, take assessments and answer surveys.

Today’s release includes a wide array of features most in demand by the users who plan to deploy e-learning on smartphones.  The Serebra Nomad mobile functionality includes:

- Straightforward log-in to the Serebra Campus application
- Intuitive account registration
- Advanced course catalog search
- Course enrolment using manager approval or PIN redemption
- Uncomplicated review of personalized training plans
- Easy access to a calendar of training events
- Access to mobile content
- Ability to launch exams

The beta version of Serebra Nomad has been tested on iPhone, Windows Mobile 6, Blackberry, Android and Palm WebOS.

With the staggering number of today’s workforce being mobile and with the ever-increasing number of workplace compliancy requirements, we at Serebra believe that the combination of being able to take m-learning and to have successful completions of assessments tracked back to the central learning management system, Serebra Campus, will prove to be a valuable service for our existing and future customers, saving them both time and money.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

My past three blog entries have all had an Olympic theme, and the posts have generated a great deal of interest from Serebra’s customers.  Each customer who has called me over the past two weeks has asked about Canadian patriotism.  They want to know if I feel that this is who we Canadians are now or whether the Olympics here in Vancouver has simply created a passing fad of temporary dress-up patriotism.

My guess is that we are a changing country.  We are waving the Canadian flag like never before, and we are wearing its colours, red and white, like never before.  The people filling our streets are chest thumping and bursting into spontaneous choruses of "O Canada".  If nothing else, the 2010 Olympic Games of Vancouver and Whistler have provided justification for the most visible expression of Canadian national pride outside of the two World Wars.

Canada has reacted this way, albeit to a lesser degree, to other sporting events in the past.  I was in Grade 10 during the 1972 Canada - Russia summit series in hockey; our entire school was sent home to watch the now-legendary final game.  We’ve also had bursts of pride at Canada Cups, World Cups, the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and when Canadian sprinter Donovan Bailey broke the 10-second barrier in the 100m race at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.  Each of those was special, and each was different than what we're seeing now.  The outpouring of Canadian patriotism is not just here in Vancouver, where you can't go anywhere without seeing a red maple leaf, but it’s happening all across Canada.

But unlike previous displays of love for our country, this time everything is bigger, louder, bolder and much more confident.

The power of spectator sports is the power of community.  Yes, the Olympic spectacle is here, and we all thrill at watching remarkable athletes at their best.  But the real emotional pull comes when we join with others who feel the same, who care the same, and who are united at least temporarily as part of a single, national family.

Discovering our Canadian identity from this vast, diverse nation has always been the great Canadian challenge.  We love our country, yet we are hyper-sensitive about our ethnic and cultural diversity.  We celebrate that diversity, yet we vilify anyone who thinks we don't do it enough or if we do it too much. We hate clichés and stereotypes, yet we also revel in the images that make Canada our Canada.  We like to make our identity an issue of national, provincial and municipal politics.

As we all heard during the Opening Ceremonies, we are Canadians who say please and thank you and you're welcome.  We are a nation joined by a unique kind of multiculturalism that sets us apart from the world.  But ever since I can remember, we have been in search of that rallying point or unifying idea that pulls it all together.

In this moment, it is these Vancouver Olympic Games.  In this moment, it has become that extraordinary opportunity to shout "CANADA" from our streets, our cars and our rooftops.

This patriotic attitude might stick.  Maybe we are changing after all.  Maybe we like it.  Maybe we were just waiting for the right chance.

Maybe this is it.  O Canada!    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0jhJA1Hjxk

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

On Sunday afternoon, I hosted one of our customers who was visiting Vancouver to attend a number of Olympic events.    We met in the Serebra offices, which overlook the Olympic cauldron, the Olympic rings on a boat anchored near the downtown seawall and hundreds of Canadian flags.  All afternoon, we had a great discussion about the world’s still-shaky economy.

No matter how much we read about certain sectors valiantly clawing their way back to some semblance of normalcy, there are still daily stories of people being laid off, budgets being slashed and businesses grappling with how to do more with less.  Through all of this, we both were able to cite examples of people we know who are still on top of their game.  Not only are they doing fine, but they are also thriving.

Their game-changer?  E-learning.

While it’s incredibly draining to see the impact this economy is having on some people, many top performers are doing just fine.  To help ensure that their jobs are much less likely to be in jeopardy, the corporate superstars we discussed use e-learning to help make themselves indispensable.  E-learning is a proven tool and tactic to help create an edge.

By selecting, taking and mastering the right e-learning courses, these top performers differentiate themselves from others, turning themselves into people an organization can't be without.

E-learning, taken on the job or at home, raises the bar for what it means to be good at your job.  Just browsing through one of our course catalogues (such as http://www.serebra.com/e-learning/catalog/index.cfm) reveals a world of opportunities that can help top performers stay on the top of the career podium.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

 

At 5 o’clock this morning, our family did something VERY Canadian.  We got off the chesterfield, finished our bacon and maple syrup, wrapped up our Timbits in a serviette, bundled up in our Olympic sweaters, tuques and iconic red mittens to deke around thousands of other flag-waving Canadians lining the streets to see an Olympic torchbearer carry the 2010 Olympic Flame as the torch relay wound its way through our neighbourhood.  There are a lot of Canadian words in that last sentence, eh?

We weren’t just dressed in red and white and armed with Canadian flags.  We were drenched in passion.  Office workers were wearing Team Canada hockey jerseys over their business suits and students from the nearby schools were sporting maple leafs (note the spelling: not leaves) painted on their faces.  Within minutes, we were in the middle of a growing throng of happy spectators whooping it up at pre-dawn.  Passing trucks blasted their air horns and car drivers beamed and waved at the crowd.  Despite the traffic jam, not a frown could be found among the passing motorists.

Then, preceded by dancers who prepped the crowd for the coming convoy, and on-time at precisely 6:12 a.m., the Olympic Flame rounded the corner and headed towards us.  After months, even years, of anticipation, finally seeing the familiar white-suited, red-mittened torchbearer seemed surreal.  All of those around us, who only minutes before were a group of strangers who had gathered along the sidelines, were now united in a common cause.  We clapped and laughed and yelled and we lifted our Canadian flags aloft as the torchbearer went by.

Seconds later, it was all over.

As quickly as we had gathered, we all dispersed, the sidewalks had cleared (with NO litter) and the roads had returned to normal.

It was polite.  It was civilized.  It was a moment bursting with national pride.

It was a great day to be Canadian.

 

Friday, February 5, 2010

The 2010 Olympic Winter Games begin one week from today here in Vancouver.  The Olympic Games promises to be a spectacle on numerous fronts, including the amount of exposure that it will provide Vancouver and Whistler.

Vancouver is a beautiful city and a superb place to live, and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to tell a story that inspires a world audience of three billion.  We have a highly educated population and we are internationally admired for our tolerance, openness and diversity.

I am passionate about my country and my city, but I do have to face the traffic!  In recent weeks, the area of downtown Vancouver right outside of our Serebra office has been turned into an Olympic village complete with road closures, gathering media frenzy and hundreds of security personnel.  Traffic snarl-ups have already begun to plague the city, so Serebra had to get creative to ensure all of us keep our workplace functional during the largest event ever to take place here.

I asked all of our employees to get together to create a work plan that wouldn’t compromise our teamwork and interaction, and what a work plan it has turned out to be!  The plan covers core hours and staggered hours to allow for commuting difficulties, telecommuting with the heavy use of conference calling, web conferences, hourly and daily work logs, sales coverage around the clock, etc.  Thanks to everyone’s input, our productivity won’t be affected by all of the excitement that surrounds us.

The world has arrived.  Let the Games begin!!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Like most people in the world, I have been reading and watching news coverage of Port-au-Prince in Haiti.  Although they have been dealt this horrific blow by Mother Nature, I keep learning more about how the majority of Haitians somehow continue to stand tall.  They remain resolute despite having seen unimaginable horrors.  The living, regardless of the death and destruction around them, still cling to hope.

At one collapsed college – a nursing college – there were video clips of a group quietly waiting as a search and rescue team desperately looked for survivors in the flattened building. The certificates of those that were due to graduate blew around in the breeze, a poignant reminder that more than 200 who died during the earthquake were training to help others.  Yet the Haitians who were staring at the building had a look of hope in their eyes.

How do they do that?  How do they pick themselves up?  How do they get on with their lives in the harshest of conditions?

It makes me wonder if, in the face of such adversity, I would be as strong.  Would I stand tall and resolute?  Would you?

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

 

The human–animal bond is a very strong one.  Last Saturday morning, our family’s 16-year old dog, Maggie – a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier – gave us the unambiguous signal that she was having her last day.  By 10 a.m., we were at the animal hospital and made the decision authorizing euthanasia.  The finality of that decision was overwhelming.

Maggie lay across my chest for the procedure; she did not struggle and she gave no sign of distress.  It was peaceful, and it was the right thing to do at the right time; any later would have been selfish on our part, despite the immense emptiness we feel.

 

Maggie truly was a family member, and her ability to love unconditionally endeared her to me, my wife and our daughters.  Just as the adage states, Maggie was “man’s best friend”.  On Saturday, we had the privilege to give Maggie the final gift of our love for her: that we were with her to the very end.

 

Thursday, January 14, 2010

I received a number of e-mails and calls about a comment I made in my December 22 blog entry.  When asked to state my favourite accomplishment at Serebra, I replied, “my re-direction of the company to one that has such focus on education advancements in developing nations.”  I’d like to explain that response.

In developing nations, education is a fundamental determinant not only of health and individual income, but also of a country’s aggregate level of economic growth.  Investment in post-secondary education (the focus here at Serebra) provides a greater boost to economic development than either universal primary education or even universal secondary education.  Of course, the current United Nations Millennium Development Goals focus is on universal primary education, which is critical to the health of a nation, but that should be complemented with the goal of giving a country’s workforce more employability skills.  That combination can be the necessary boost to lift large segments of a population out of poverty.

More and better education empowers people to help themselves move out of poverty and toward sustainable development.

Just this week, Serebra sold easyLearning cards in a number of new countries, one of which is Namibia.  Namibia has some impressive statistics on education:

• Education spending accounts for 7.2% of their GDP
• Public spending on education is 21.04% of total government expenditure
• Primary school completion rate is 74%
• Female enrolment at the secondary school level is 52.8%
• Namibia’s total population literacy rate is 84% (adults at 88%)

Namibia completely understands that the road from poverty is paved by education, and all of us at Serebra are thrilled that our easyLearning program fits into their education initiatives.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

In today’s economy, some of the most highly valued skills aren't necessarily the ones taught at colleges and universities.  Naturally, the hard technical skills are a basic requirement regardless of one's chosen profession, but it is most often the intangible skills that really set the job hunter apart from the crowd.

Regardless of the level of the person within an organization, there is a need for excellent interpersonal skills.  So much of our work is based on the human connection.  Once we start that connection, the winners will be those who can articulate their ideas clearly.

Serebra's professional development courses, or "soft skills", cover the much-needed topics of communication, presentation, effective listening, command of the language, social habits, personal habits, leadership, management styles and problem solving.  These have become the must-have skills in the new economy.

When employment candidates meet with recruiters, the employers are going to be carefully studying the personality style and the soft skills of the candidate.  There’ll be tests to see if the candidate can self-manage while still having effective interpersonal skills.  Being able to effectively multi-task and take on added responsibility is also a key benefit that is so highly valued by most employers.

The more soft skills someone has, the better positioned they will be in any career field.  Serebra’s soft skills e-learning library is meant to put you far ahead of the competition in the job market.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

I have often wondered why we make resolutions on New Year’s Eve.  This annual ritual, which follows a pattern found in religions and cultures the world over, is our promise to do better.  It is a fresh start.  To me, I guess it is a good way for us to infuse our lives with hope.

Back in January 1990, I worked at Northern Telecom and I announced on an Edmonton-based morning television show (hosted by Lorraine Mansbridge) that 1990 was going to be “The Year of the Cell Phone”.  Now it is twenty years later and I believe 2010 will be “The Year of the Mobile”.  Déjà vu?  Hardly.  Today’s mobile focus is on smartphones rather than what would now be considered the birth of basic cell phones.

As I wrote on December 16, Serebra is rapidly gearing up to offer a wide range of mobile “m-learning” courses, and our proprietary technologies will be able to determine whether the learner will be accessing our courseware from a desktop PC, a notebook or a mobile smartphone, and then deliver the appropriate course format to that learner.  We are getting ready for course access on an iPhone, an Android or a BlackBerry.  We’re gearing up for Apple's next iPhone incarnation, we are monitoring Google's Android moves with great interest and we know of course that Research in Motion's BlackBerry will retain its formidable market share with the business-orientated consumer.

These mobile technologies are changing us.  We are connected to each other and to the Internet like never before.  We are essentially carrying miniature computers in our pockets, and through them we are giving others real time updates on where we are and what we are doing.  Applications are managing our frenzied on-the-go lifestyles; even our books are being downloaded into e-readers.  All of these things existed in 2008, but it was over this past year of 2009 that we embraced the digital life in unprecedented numbers.

Here are a few statistics:

• Smartphone sales worldwide for 2009 were up 24 percent compared with 2008, according to research giant Gartner Inc.
• Facebook has more than 350 million users, which is more than double the 150 million people who were on Facebook at the start of the year.
• Individuals became publishers in 2009, using the micro-blogging site Twitter to post instant, bite-sized updates to the world. The site was founded in 2007 but grew exponentially this year.
• E-book sales brought in $13.9 million in revenue in the third quarter of 2008, according to International Digital Publishing Forum. The same time period this year saw $46.5 million in e-book revenue -- a 235 percent spike.
• Mobile phone customers have now realized that the phone isn't as important as the applications that run on it. “App Mania” is rampant across iPhones, BlackBerry devices and now Google's Android system.
• Video games are no longer just on giant LCD TVs in living rooms. In 2009, gaming became mobile and social.

So is 2010 the year for mobile learning at Serebra?  I think so.  How the days ahead unfold will depend in large measure on events outside of our control.  For our core learning management system and e-learning courseware offerings, we hope that there’s a general improvement in the global economy.  We need employers to get back to the level of employability skills training that was accelerating before the September 2008 market meltdown.  Several forecasts now predict that a better-days-ahead prognosis is warranted as we sweep out the old year and shepherd in the new.

These are exciting times for sure.  Happy New Year!