Nemogenia

When selling is teaching

2010-01-25T14:15:00.000+01:00

All publishing industries are living tough moments. In part is due to the impact of technology and massive use of it by people. Change is happening at every level and at every process....every day.

Traditional selling and marketing processes are inefficient, specially for new designed content product and services. This is just a small portion of the problem, but an interesting one.

How do we tell people a new product or service is better than the one they´re already using... and is working fine? How do we change the way they are using information and content? How do we insert technology -more technology- in their life and work?

I believe in one answer: we first teach them.

Presenting and showing new content or information product and services is always fascinating. But much more fascinating is when people starts to buy and use your product and they tell the world about it. And even more fascinating when they start to build guides and recommend it in their blogs, twitters, networks....in their digital world. And, maybe, the best of all is when they become anxious for the next release, the new functionalities, the new contents you are going to present them in a few months.

This occurs because they've learned how to use it, they are excited about the benefits they obtain and, of course, that paying the price is fair.

If we first start teaching how to use a product we will have two good inputs: what issues are not resolved the best possible way and the barriers people have to buy and start using it (price, content, format, hardware, mobility, dependencies and more). We will have the opportunity to solve them and go on. But the best thing is we could transmit the passion that is behind every creation of a new tool, product or service. If we become a "positive engine" to energize the others, the best of your creation is exposed. So imagine having this "power" in every training session of every single product and service you want to sell.
Introducing a new technology is also a part of the teaching process.

To face this circumstance we need to focus on two realities. The first is: the more simple the technology is, the less time a person will need to adopt it; and the second, the new technology has to solve problems and not to create new ones. If during the selling process, which now has to be the teaching process, the user understands both correct, 90% of the work is done.

I truly believe that, to sell, teaching is much more effective than just exposing the product. I will apply this belief from now on and tell you my experience in a few months.

Tools of Change for Publishing Conference - TOCCON 2010

2009-12-11T23:42:00.000+01:00

I will be presenting four stories about how the rules in publishing have changed and will continue to change. We will give you four real examples, four real stories to show you how studying medicine in Europe is evolving fast.

Changing the Way Medical Students Learn: 4 Stories from Europe

2009-11-04T18:26:00.000+01:00

(This presentation will take place in Tools of Change for Publishing 2010 conference in New York, 02/24/2010)

Healthcare change is on everyone’s agenda nowadays as the role of medicine in society changes. The focus has shifted from the occasional care of individuals in hospitals to promoting health in the community. These changes place new demands on doctors and have forced a rethink on how students are taught in medical school. Medical training is becoming more student-centered. There is an emphasis on active learning rather than on the passive absorption of knowledge. Rigid curricula are giving way to more adaptable and flexible ones.

Publishers of medical textbooks, like Elsevier, must take account of these changes. They must be equally adaptable and flexible in the way they deliver the information. They must understand how teachers teach and how students learn. We believe there is a tremendous opportunity to drive sustained innovation in medical education.
This presentation is based on our experiences in Europe. We will highlight four stories of medical students from the UK, Spain, France and Germany that illustrate how publishers are responding to the changing needs in medical education.

The stories will cover the following topics:

How students collect information today in order to pass exams
New exam testing tools
Case-study exams
Wiki-like collaborative lesson creation
Dealing with piracy when moving from print to electronic delivery
Sources of content: e-libraries & e-Books
Delivering knowledge in small chunks

Products and services that will be covered:
UK: International Virtual Dental School
Spain: ArenaMIR
France: Université Médicale Virtuelle Francophone
Germany: Mediscript

This presentation is for anyone interested in how self-directed education changes the rules of the game for publishers. No medical knowledge required!

Google Wave: teaching online made easy?

2009-10-30T21:10:00.000+01:00

I'm one of the persons who received a Google Wave account with eight invitations available in it. I was very interested -and excited- in discovering this new territory in the net.

It was announced as a new collaborative tool, something between email, twitter and chat. But I didn't have a clear idea in my mind of what was his potential.

Now I've been playing with Google Wave, creating new waves, sharing contents, maps and files, making simple polls, chatting in real time and locating all his secrets.

While chatting with a colleague I realized the potential Google Wave has to teach. I was giving him some information in text format: a short paragraph of a new concept I am working on. He asked me some questions (more text) and then I sent them some images with comments so he could fully understand me idea. He then proposed minor changes and asked some more questions (more text). A YouTube video came to my mind, something from a parallel world that could help me to communicate better my project to him (movie). After the movie I decided to share with him a presentation I made to introduce my thoughts to other colleagues from other countries (PowerPoint). Finally I presented to him different sources (links to different sites), which inspired me to build the concept.

So that’s what we shared: text – questions – images + text – conversation – questions – video – slideshow – links

And another very key issue in that moment was my full control of the message and contents I was using to make him understand an idea. Just adding a test at the end of this path and I would have an online teaching object (and I could share it also with others).

So now, I would like Google Wave to fully deploy its potential (some areas are not ready to use yet) so I can discover more interesting usages for this new tool.

Digital Strangelove

2009-10-24T20:47:00.001+01:00

(or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

Digital Strangelove (or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Internet)

View more documents from David Gillespie.

Online Education on the Horizon

2009-09-05T21:50:00.000+01:00

Online learning is one of my main concerns today. I'm actively working in understanding what online instructional models are the good ones for different kinds of students: university, residents at hospitals, professionals improving their knowledge, etc.
I've been looking at different (and innovative) e-libraries, e-books, e-book readers, online databases and other content containers but a single one made me completely happy.
I'm also following in Twitter different specialists and people interested, like me, in e-learning and the future of education. It seems to me that all of us are disappointed by the lack of real innovation in this field.
Most of the key opinion leaders expressing their ideas on the net seem to end in the same concept: The Future Doesn't Fit in the Containers of the Past (Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO Denuo).
We have an inmense opportunity to innovate and try to find the correct models for e-learning.

Seth Godin on FAKE networking

2009-07-27T22:36:00.006+01:00

Content deconstructed .....and now bundled

2009-07-27T21:38:00.007+01:00

Apple is trying to help the music industry to rebuild the concept of ALBUM. The Financial Times reports that Apple is trying to bundle interactive content to stimulate digital album sales.

Of course, changes that allow people to make more choices are always good changes. What shocked me is the direction Apple took now. They´ve created a universe of deconstructed content: iTunes, the universe of songs. Albums, even if available at the store, have disappear from the stats related to downloaded music. Songs (and apps) are being bought by people who create their own playlists (the private version of albums). But albums are not a business today.

Now, a new concept is being put in place: bundling different kinds of multimedia contents to stimulate what the FT article calls Digital Albums. It will be very interesting to see the mix of contents behind this concept and people's reaction to it.

Collecting information and learning

2009-07-18T23:14:00.002+01:00

I had a very nice talk with one of my colleagues from Amsterdam. We were talking about how students, and other people, collect information to learn. The issue we were discussing was how medicine students build their papers and learn.

A few years ago, when I was in the Faculty of Law, I bought 4 or 5 really heavy books to read and learn. My teachers at the University told me the information needed to pass the exam was in those books. I didn’t have the internet at that time so no chance to google nor wiki.

A few weeks ago, faculty students ended their annual course and started summer holidays, after passing the final exams. I had a good opportunity to chat with a group of medicine students. I asked them about their books, how big and heavy are they? The answer was: we don’t know, we don’t use very much books now. We use the papers writen by our professors, plus some reference materials, plus google and some internet sources, like xtorrent and rapidshare.

I, then , asked about how did they organise all these informations from the different sources. They answered they all shared a usb flash memory stick and a gMail account to organise their info. They had a group and every person was responsible for creating some lessons. All lessons were then shared via Gmail or the USB stick. But the most interesting thing is that they were collecting information from different books, selecting the small pieces that were important to pass the exams, aggregating papers from the professors and related documents downloaded from differents websites.

A specific comment attracted my attention: they were trying to reduce the lessons to small pieces of information. Each of the lessons was a constructions of small pieces of information, coming from different sources, and aggregated by one of the members. All were working in the same way. The reason for that is they could retain more easily the information if they visualized each lesson with each small guide and a few contents in it.

The system they have created to learn is so different from the one I used 20 years ago…..but, at the same time, I do use the same system when browsing the web for new insigths, new ideas, new projects and new updates on me every day work. I collect small pieces of information, organize them in different “lessons” I have to read, and share them with my network.

If it’s working for them and it’s working for me, why are we still publishing heavy text books?

Color e-paper update - May 2009

2009-05-12T11:30:00.007+01:00

An article published in Nature Photonics (read the summary of the article at http://www.nature.com/nphoton/journal/v3/n5/abs/nphoton.2009.68.html) about a week ago informs about two prototypes of color e-paper displays. It is very interesting to see that the techonology they are using comes from the past. In fact, both developments are focused on using pigments in an aqueous solution inside the pixel. Then, by manipulating the voltage on each device the liquid with the pigment draws out from the reservoir into the freee space of the pixel (in the second prototype, there are two pigments in each reservoir but with different charge properties so that the voltage controls which of them is shown in the display).

The potential of colorized e-ink for the health sciences publishing industry is huge. It opens a vast universe of possibilities and new developments on e-books and, also, new instructional models for education, e-libraries, multiformat services and more other interesting gadgets.

Fujitsu has started to sell his first color e-reader (FLEPia) on march this year, with an 8-inch screen display and up to 260,000 colors in high-definition. Even if it's a very good start for this new market, the re-draw speed is still low and the weight (385g) and specially the price is too high if compared to the Sony e-Reader or the Kindle.

Update on the Wolfram|Alpha project

2009-04-30T09:17:00.005+01:00

There's been great anticipation around Stephen Wolfram's ambitious project to create a comprehensive "computational knowledge engine." The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University will host a sneak preview of the Wolfram|Alpha system, and a discussion of its underlying technology and implications. Participants will include Wolfram|Alpha founder Stephen Wolfram and Professor of Law Jonathan Zittrain.

Stephen Wolfram discusses Wolfram|Alpha: Computational Knowledge Engine...here's the video:

Value added lost

2009-04-09T16:06:00.005+01:00

We can develop the best product and services in the world. But, among many other issues, we must be aware of two critical things:

1) Online products and services change fast because of their environment;
2) People who create product and services are not the ones communicating its existence to the market.

The consequences of these two facts are:

1) Flexibility and adaptation are required more than ever;
2) People who create must be involved in the communication of the product and services to the audience.

So, for the first subject, we need people who learn fast, who understand perfectly what they are working with, who can assess the needs of the users and are able to match them in seconds. But if they don’t match, then they should be prepared to offer a solution based on our know how and skills. And latest, they should be capable of giving the correct feedback so we can adapt fast to changes.

And for the second concern, we should involve developers and managers in building, and continuously adapting, the correct messages about our products and services. We should all become story tellers of our products because stories can be, just by themselves, a hundred times more fascinating than a flyer.

Medical images databases

2009-04-02T06:14:00.005+01:00

I’m currently working with my team on browsing the images contained inside an ebook in a 3D environment. Tho objective is have a better navigation of the images and access the clinical cases from them. Doctors are used to see lots of images during their daily work, so it is important to navigate medical content databases the same way.

See this video I just made for better understand what we are doing:

Any comments and ideas are always welcome.

Wolfram Alpha

2009-03-10T09:47:00.005+01:00

This could be the next generation search engine: Wolfram

http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/

2019

2009-03-03T08:55:00.005+01:00

Someone imagined the next generation tools.....

Wish I was there !

2008 (ENG)

2008-12-22T17:48:00.004+01:00

This 2008 has been a great year. Because I have made a significant change in my professional life and I succeeded. I have met a great team and a fantastic project.

The illusion I began with in this adventure is still with me and it’s renewed constantly thanks to the people surrounding me.

I see the difficulties we have and those that could come, but none seems to me unworkable. I see them more like opportunities and challenges.

I like and enjoy what I do and the people I’m working with, and I am happy of the persons who share my personal and professional life.

I always remember colleagues and friends from my previous adventures, because they also have been crucial to me and they continue to be.

I am very thankful for this past year 2008 and very excited by the one starting in a few days.

2008

2008-12-22T10:49:00.003+01:00

Para mí este ha sido un gran año. Porque he hecho un cambio significativo en mi vida profesional y he acertado. He conocido a un gran equipo de personas y un fantástico proyecto.

La ilusión con la que empecé esta aventura sigue conmigo y se renueva constantemente gracias a las personas que me rodean. Veo las dificultades que tenemos y las que pueden venir, pero ninguna me parece insalvable y las tomo como oportunidades y retos.

Me gusta y disfruto de lo que hago y con quien lo hago, y estoy feliz de las personas que comparten mi vida personal y profesional.

Me acuerdo siempre de los compañeros y amigos de anteriores aventuras, porque ellos también han sido cruciales para mí y lo siguen siendo.

En definitiva, estoy muy agradecido por este año que termina pronto y muy entusiasmado por el que llega.

Followers......

2008-11-07T18:04:00.003+01:00

See full article at WebStrategist.

Just a brief of the stats published which reveal the power of the net.

Facebook
Obama: 2,379,102 supporters
McCain: 620,359 supporters

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

MySpace

Obama: Friends: 833,161
McCain: Friends: 217,811

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

YouTube

Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 (uploads about 4 a day), Channel Views: 18,413,110
McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 (uploads about 2 a day), Subscribers: 28,419, Channel Views: 2,032,993

Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCain
Obama has 905% more viewers than McCain

Twitter

Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers
McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603 followers

Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain

Take your own conclusions.

The era of THE USER

2008-11-04T04:59:00.007+01:00

I had a revealing conversation with a relative of mine who is a Doctor. We were talking about Internet, social networks and professional information. Actually, I was interested in knowing how does he use the computer every day.

The answer was very simple: I use my laptop five to ten times per day depending on the number of patients I visit. He literally said:

“In the morning, when I arrive to my office, I read two or three different online newspapers (I wish I could learn how to use RSS),. Then I open my personal and professional email (I use to receive all kinds of jokes from other doctors, lots of spam and some professional newsletters I read in less than five minutes). In this same session I see the weather forecast for the next days and that’s all.

At lunch, I revisit my email (both of them), search some medical information when I want to revise some aspects of certain pathologies, update news (don’t have time to see the news on TV) and, from time to time, visit my Linkedin account.

During the afternoon, to prepare patient’s visits, I use to access an image database created internally with the images and videos we record on every patient. That helps me to remember their clinical dossiers and to see the evolution of the treatment.

After a long day, at home, I have another laptop I use just for fun: email, search information on interesting travels I would like to do and, sometimes, search new gadgets (TV, music, cameras).”

I then asked him about his preferred search engine. And the answer was not the one I expected (Google or Yahoo). He answered he was bored of these search engines because of the big amount of unnecessary information they offer in every search.

He told me he was expecting some smart company to create a single platform where he could “place” all the services he is using: email (both), his own images and videos database, RSS, library, travel agency, newspapers and newsletters (titles would be sufficient) and other stuff that could change from time to time. He wanted this synchronized automatically in his two laptops or, also, available in some private website (so he could access it from other’s computers).

It’s not the first time I listen to this same comment, and my own experience is that I’ve also build a centralized unique website to link all my needs of information, access to networks, banks, service’s accounts, etc.

Unconsciously, what we are doing is staying away from doing more and more searches and, instead of this, building our own system of information. This personal system is generated by our previous searches of information (a lot of them), contacts with others, and of course experience.

All these outcomes drove us to be aware of the different places we need to visit in the internet (our hard drive or network) to feed our desires. So now we tend to navigate directly to these sites instead of starting googling or yahooing.

Improving health care in Pennsylvania by cutting costs?

2008-11-02T20:42:00.003+01:00

Small network of three hospital called Geisinger Health System charge a flat fee on coronary-artery bypass surgery and all the pre- and post-operative care that goes with it and warranties that, if preventable complications occurs, Geisinger will assume the new costs.

It is called the ProvenCare guarantee is based on his CEO concept that thay shouldn't get paid if we don't do the right thing.

The company is studying more procedures and deceases to be included in their program. More can be read at Fastcompany.

Microtargeting tools used in US presidential campaign

2008-11-02T20:30:00.004+01:00

Six companies are helping McCain and Obama to learn what you eat, what you buy, where you live, where you work, what your bank is, what you drive and where you shop.

A lot can be learned for our projects.

Google Books is paying

2008-10-29T08:51:00.005+01:00

Google would pay $125 million to settle two copyright lawsuits where his book-scanning efforts were compromised by the Association of American Publishers.

The new agreement will allow Google to show a 20% of each scanned bookto the users without paying anything. The full text could also be available for a certain price. This could be a good measure but thinking on technical or scientific books I wonder if this 20% is a big big mistake.

The NYT explains that Google plans to take 37 percent of the revenue, leaving 63 percent for publishers and authors.

40

2008-10-26T09:48:00.013+01:00

Today's my 40th birthday!!

I was awaked at 7h30 -as usual- by Julia and Carlos who wanted to have breakfast….a few minutes later, they came with Teresa to give me some gifts (surprise! morning party!) and we sung all together in the bed for a while!

After playing with them I decided to post some thoughts. I'm happy, I have a wonderful FAMILY and very good friends I really love. I do, most of my time, the things I like to do. I try not to waste my time, I enjoy my job and professional projects, my colleagues (...most of them) and travelling to meet with people with whom I can spend good moments and face daily challenges.

Past has been wonderful. I like the people who are (have been) in my life, I like the different things I've being doing, the places I had the oportunity to discover, even the sports I practiced (and still practice).

Present is today, is still amazing and futur is unknown and exciting. Many things to do, many people to know, many places to discover and plenty of curiosity to fuel my engine!

New blog on book innovation

2008-09-22T11:46:00.007+01:00

I've just opened a new blog called: Book Innovation.

Feel free to post your comments and even send me your posts if you want to publish them in it.