Re-Thinking Using Flash

The portal I created using flash doesn't seem to be a wise choice as I seem to have way too much content to add. It would take too long to the file to load. With only one post built, it's already taking forever. I am having to look towards some new ideas for content management.

I have had suggestions of UDUTU, Ning, and Google Sites as possible solutions. I will be spending more time trying these out. I am going to see if some of these service can work with small flash modules. It might be that a paid version of the service will work but I will try and see what I can use for free for now.

I had a small amount of time to talk with a bunch of volunteers around the office about Pride Training. A lot of them are returns so they already have experience with various posts. A lot of them also say that things are usually pretty clear once they are doing the job. My only concern is with safety issues. There are a lot of things that might be overlooked if effective training is not conducted.

I talked to Imani about my findings. She said that training is very important and necessary. She believes that training could be done better and has asked that I help with this. I want to be able to get people involved and excited about Pride. Maybe this training portal will be the trick. How can I make learning easy and engaging? If I could use the model of facebook here, craeting a Pride community maybe that would help.

Office Work Today

Since the move, there hasn't been much for me to do. People are still getting things organized so I have just been trying to help out where I can. I asked if I could look over some of the training document from previous Pride celebrations. I was given a bunch of word documents and some poster graphics.

I sat and analyzed the materials I had for the remainder of my time there. I realized that there was a lot of information missing. From my personal experience working many of these posts, I found that the training document itself really was nothing more than an outline. I believe it was meant to work as an outline for the trainer to use when doing the training meetings.

I talked to Imani about maybe using one of these for one of my projects for school. She was all game for me to find innovative ways to create a better document. I told her about my proposed ITEC 894 project. I am hoping to build a training portal to aid with Pride Celebration training. With these documents, I'll have a better idea on how to tackle some instructional material. I will now need to see how I can use web 2.0 tools and make things interactive.

E-mail Etiquette

The new office headquarters is very much different than it was in the LGBT Center on Market but it is making a home for itself. The place is still kind of in shambles but offices are getting slowly redone.

Today I found something interesting as it has never really happened to me in my professional job. There was a strong of e-mail going around the office which wasn't necessarily professional. It started with an e-mail from someone asking for certain tasks to be done. As the string grew longer, it turned into a more casual kind of talk. Some jokes were passed around which have offended some staff members. The Executive direct came to speak about proper e-mail etiquette in the workplace. It was explained how things like this can be spread to people it was not meant to be. She also warmed that e-mail sent from the office is also backed up on their servers.

I guess I always thought it was common sense to not write personal things in the workplace. This was a wake up call that people should watch what they write in a professional environment. Luckily no one lost their job over this e-mail debacle.

SF Pride Offices Moving

The SF Pride Offices are moving. I was told I wasn't needed for the next two weeks.