Showing posts with label business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label business. Show all posts

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Ales204 Blog and Analytics


Miarcel Salanthe created Webpages As Graphs, a visualizer applet that will turn any weblink into a graphic form. You can view the graph being plotted in real-time as little colored nodes branch out into snowflake-like patterns. Each color dot represents a certain aspect of the web structure, such as blue if for links, red is for tables, violet for images and so on.
Webpages As Graphs uses Processing, Traer Physics and HTMLParser. Salathe has also provided instructions on how to print out the graph into poster-size.


via PSFK.



Have a look at our own "snowflake"

Image created here

Friday, November 25, 2011

Lecture 30: Interview Analysis

Today's lecture is going to be in two parts. Those of you who have been following along on Twitter, would have seen that we'll have fellow student, Ian McNeill tall us about some software development he's made using what he's learnt in #ALES204. Exciting!

 This is what Ian says about his presentation:


LMS stands for "Learning Management System" and is used in one form or another by practically every company today.  LMS software has a large variety of different purposes, but they all follow the same structural format (Information presentation followed by Testing and online).  Over the last year and a half I have been making my own LMS software and you will notice much of what we learned in ALES 204 has been incorporated into the presentations!

For the second half of the class (if time permits), we'll practise analysing an interview. You will have the opportunity to find an interview related to your interest or field, and then you can analyse it using a google doc which can be found here.

Note: PLEASE make sure you *save a copy* of the google doc rather than simply writing in it! more like a workshop where you'll have most of the class to practise what we've been covering all week.




Sunday, November 20, 2011

Module 12 Labs

In labs this week you'll have the opportunity to practise the interviewing and podcasting information we're talking about all week. I know you just can't wait!

Some of the things you're going to be doing:
image from audio boo.fm


  1. Find a partner
  2. Together, read through this handout
  3. Choose whether you will ask employment questions, behavioural questions or journalistic questions
  4. Take a few minutes to create some questions for each other
  5. Conduct your interviews and record it using audioboo (your TA can help you)
  6. Remember, you have the choice to announce your real name in the interview or use an alias
  7. Think about your voice, breathing and pacing.
  8. Share the link to your audioboo recording with your TA.

Read more in the google doc here.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Lecture 27: E-mail and Professionalism

Today we have Marie-Claude showering us with another great presentation.

(will be see any photos of her cute puppy?!)



Monday, November 14, 2011

Lecture 25: LinkedIn for Students

Welcome to a brand new week everyone!

Today we'll be introduced to LinkedIn and we'll have a little bit of time during the lecture to register and begin our exploration with LinkedIn and how it can be useful to you as students.




A reminder about the science article assignment which is due on Friday (the 18th) at 17:00. You must send your assignment via e-mail (yes, e-mail!) to BOTH your TA and myself. If you are doing option four and have chosen the poster option, you need to send your assignment to us via e-mail and then (if you have decided to do a physical poster) you can give me the poster on Monday before we start class (otherwise, an attachment with your e-poster is fine!).

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Lecture 16: CV Writing Workshop

Today the TAs and I are going to show you our own CVs. I have had great luck with mine, landing an interview each time I've used it - so I'm an aficionado of this style. But, there are lots of different styles out there and some exciting ideas. Pamela has suggested looking at the templates over here. Another reminder that we'll be using the more academic version, a CV, rather than the North American version of a résumé:
A curriculum vitae (CV) provides an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications. In some countries, a CV is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview, when seeking employment. The curriculum vitae is comparable to a résumé in many countries, although in English Canada and the United States it is substantially different.
A résumé is a simpler document while the CV is expected to thoroughly outline your education and your professional history (think jobs, volunteer work, publications, presentations etc...). In the words of the University of Waterloo's Career Services:



What is a curriculum vitae?
 A presentation of credentials for a research/teaching position in a university, a research institute,
or company with R&D requirements. A résumé (two pages maximum) is prepared for employers
outside the academic and research environment
 An indispensable job hunting tool that represents an objective, factual, personal history of you -
an advertisement designed to market you by highlighting your abilities and future potential
 A summary of your career aspirations, educational background, employment experience,
achievements, and interests




Key headings to include in your cv:


  • Name
  • Address/Telephone/Email
  • Citizenship

  • Research and/or Professional Inter ests
  • Education/Professional  Training/Certifications
  • Employment
  • Publications
  • Presentations
  • Awards/Scholarships
  • Professional Affiliations
  • Volunteer Work
  • Languages
  • Hobbies





Here are some creative takes on CVs:
Cool Blog Sociale - 10 July 2008 - Creative hire Resume T-shirt by BlackBirdTees B
From McGill University, here is a useful video outlining the elements of a cv. Also from McGill, a very handy cv writing guide.




HOMEWORK due before Monday's Class:


Students will choose two researchers in their field who use delicious and write a paragraph (as a blog comment on THIS post) noting:
      • The importance of each researcher
      • The types of resources each researcher bookmarks
      • The clarity and/or style of tagging that each researcher employs
Remember, if you post a comment under an alias, make sure I know who you are by sending me an e-mail!






For those of you who don't read the comments. Here is some additional help:



Some ways to find people using delicious.




You might check out the scientists you have followed on Twitter and see if any of them use delicious (look at their blogs)



You can also do a google search for researchers/key people in your field, have a look at their blogs and see if they have a delicious tag cloud.




I know I was involved with an creative writing new media online course and I was interested in their delicious links: http://www.delicious.com/cwnm


Howard Rheingold, a key player in my field and in new media in general (you might be interested too!): http://delicious.com/hrheingold


I mentioned in class (and on my cv) that I'm part of the Transliteracy Research Group so I keep up to date with those bookmarks too: http://www.delicious.com/transliteracy

Of course, our class is on delicious too: http://delicious.com/ales204






An interesting article on how to use delicious in research: go here




Note: delicious is still working out some bugs due to the move from Yahoo... you can read about it here.





Thursday, September 22, 2011

Lecture 8: Facebook for Business

Today is the last lesson of the week focussing on using Facebook as an opportunity to brand ourselves as great potential employees. We are going to make an online cv that people can "like" and "share." Having this online business presence will illustrate a few obvious elements including:


  • your professional profile
  • your up-to-date education/work experience etc.
  • your online presence
Also, think about some of the not so obvious aspects that you can show via your online cv:

  • your creativity
  • sense of humour
  • you know how to create memorable content
  • you know how to harness social media for a business purpose
NOTE: If you are wary of posting certain information online, please come and see me, and we will create a "paper" version of the assignment.


Note: Remember, this assignment forms part of your e-portfolio. It will not be graded separately BUT if you look at the rubric, you will see what you need to complete.


Note: Image found at Meghan Oliver 



DUE DATE EXTENDED to Monday September 26th, 17:00