Elearning - February/March 2009 - (Page 24)

web2.0technologies not technology, companies with real experience with community and social media will provide significantly more value to the buyer. >>Moderation. Many companies live in a highly-regulated world where one wrong word to a customer, patient or investor could result in costly litigation. Similarly, one wrongly conveyed process could mean non-compliance with a government regulation. Strong moderation technology provides a mechanism to address these issues. >>Strategy and services. Many LMS vendors will provide the technology with no accompanying services or strategy consulting. Very few companies will succeed in this transition without some level of consulting and services help. >>The future. A lot of vendors are trying to do it all. At some point, something has to give. Talent management is about top-down organizational control: succession planning; skills and competencies; and compensation management. Social media is about empowering the organization from the bottom up. One of these strategies has to lead the other. Buyers should demand a clear explanation of how the vendor is going to prioritize these models and a clear roadmap of how additional social media and networking tools will be incorporated into the core LMS. the hosting organization as well as select individuals or groups of people external to the organization. In fact, much of the value of the network is derived from precisely this mix. That being the case, the security of the network cannot simply rely on obvious methods such as being hosted behind a firewall or requiring a user name and password that is authenticated against a pre-defined directory of users or HRIS system. The user creation process itself must ensure security by validating these external users as they provision their own accounts. Be sure your system is up to the task of screening your external users for you based on criteria you define. Once a user is authenticated, an effective social platform must support both ‘top-down’ (adminowned) and ‘horizontal’ (community-driven) security models. Whitney - A highly effective method our customers frequently use is the classic user ID and password approach, which enables access to informal learning from anywhere there’s a Web connection. A bigger question for our customers is how to validate knowledge. Most customers favor an approach where expert/official knowledge is clearly identified, while other knowledge contributors have their entries rated. Mzinga to protect our client data. The multi-layer security controls include locked access to servers in the Level 3 facility and access to client application servers and databases that is restricted to select Mzinga application hosting employees. Additionally, all Mzinga employees with access to the operating system controls have passed background and security checks under standards that are consistent with financial services organizations. Mzinga uses SiteScope to monitor system performance and activity, as well as a 24-7 page recovery process for alerts on site activity, such as outtages and dangerous application performance metrics. We also use a number of encryption technologies to ensure that the data going into and out of our system is secure. These are consistent with the encryption used by most vendors securing HR and financial data. Ciampi - The social network is secured using the following mechanisms: >>Basic (user name/password) authentication or single sign-on authentication to control general access to the system. >>Security role permissions can control access to the collaboration centers. >>Customers can also create collaboration centers associated with specific topics (like learning activities) and only allow users enrolled in those topics to participate. Who among your current customers uses your LMS/social platform? What impact did it have on informal learning and collaboration across their learners? Whitney - We have a wide range of customers using our social platform, ranging from sales and call center teams to engineers. The feedback we get includes: >>More effective knowledge-sharing as best practices; >>Competitive information and sales strategies are more easily found and exchanged; >>Knowledge retention goes up because knowledge shared once is organically captured by the platform for re-use by users; >>Formal learning is enhanced and reinforced because it’s surrounded with informal learning; and ‘Focus on solutions to business cases without getting caught up with buzzwords and technologies.’ —Jon Ciampi, SumTotal Systems How is the network secured? Willis - Your social network should be secured in a variety of ways. Many ‘private networks’ are in fact semi-private networks where the people invited to participate represent both employees of 24 February/March 2009 Elearning! Wilkins - Mzinga partners with Level 3 Communications (www.level3.com/) as our third-party hosting center. Level 3 is one of the largest communications and Internet backbones in the world. There are multi-layer security control and monitoring procedures in place with Level 3 and http://www.level3.com/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Elearning - February/March 2009

Elearning - February/March 2009 Contents Editor’s Note News Social Networking Popular Learning Needs Technology On Competency Management IT Employment Drops Trendlines Deals Learning Roles in Talent Management Informal E-Learning and Web 2.0 Cover Story: Learning Your Way to Profits Collaboration Trends, Strategies 12 Wishes for LMSs, LCMSs Tips: Recession-Proofing Your Job Case Study: Military Training Case Study: City of Arlington, Va. New Products Pop Quiz Last Word

Elearning - February/March 2009

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