Carmen Ferrara’s Weblog 2.0

We are very excited about the latest release of Presio.  One of the original goals of iPresent was to make online training and eLearning easier and more affordable.  To do so, we wanted to create products that covered each step of the online training workflow - creating compelling content, distributing content to end viewers, and the management/tracking of content and users.

We started with Presio - a desktop application that made it easy to create rich media eLearning presentations that combined audio, video, and synchronized slides.  Presio generates a professional looking webcast presentation that can be viewed via any web browser.  It’s a great tool for recording a lecture or creating an on-demand training webcast.

Next, we released iPresent Online, which changes the way organizations deliver online training.  iPresent Online is a platform for building “learning communities” where instructors and members all create learning content. We take familiar social media tools and traditional eLearning technologies and incorporate them into a single integrated Social Learning Platform, which allows for a better online training experience.

With this latest release of Presio - we  integrate seamlessly with iPresent Online  By publishing your presentations to iPresent Online you are able to easily share your presentations via a link and track viewership statistics.  You also get a complete online learning management system for training customers, students, or members.

If you are looking for a way to easily publish your Presio presentations online, track who is viewing your presentations, and control access to presentations - or if you are looking for a simple, but powerful learning management system - then upgrade to the latest version of Presio and signup for an iPresent Online account today.

I just wanted to post some links to a few Presio presentations from around the web.  I think these are some great examples of how folks are using Presio to create great looking video presentations with synchronized slides:

http://www.switchnewmedia.com/clients/Carbon_Trust/3_Colin_Ashford_Morning/

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/alumni/reunion2009/deansluncheon2009/

http://www.ruraltech.org/video/2010/SFR_GSS/15_Urgenson/flash/

http://giffordproductions.com/clients/wellsfargo/cv_lean/index.html

http://vcc.asu.edu/taxonomy_presentation/

http://westport.com/investor/media/agm-2009/

http://video.ut.ee/producer/2010/Martin_Ehala/10.02.2010_presio/

http://harringtonbrooksproperties.com/Noonis/Investing/

We recently had a customer ask if it was possible to publish a Presio presentation using a widescreen video clip, and have the aspect ratio preserved.  You can, but there are a couple of steps you need to take to ensure that Presio publishes your video with the correct size.

Here’s a screencast tutorial that shows how to do it:

http://ipresent.net/support/tutorials/widscreen-tut/index.html

I put another screencast tutorial together.  This one shows a cool feature in Presio that allows you to take a PowerPoint presentation and embed a small video clip inside, effectively creating a picture-in-picture video effect.  This can be done with a video editing package, but it is typically an advanced feature that is tough to find in some of those tools.  Presio makes it quite easy.  See how in this screencast:  

http://ipresent.net/support/tutorials/pip/index.html

I’m very pleased to announce the release of Presio 1.4, which is now available for download.

We continue to improve version 1 as well as plan for version 2 - this release includes several bug fixes and improvements.   A couple notable improvements include:

1. Flash publishing performance has been improved by 50%
2. Added customizable publishing settings for Audio w/ Slides projects using the Slideshow template

Detailed release notes are available here.

I’m happy to announce the availability of Presio 1.0 Beta. This is the first official 1.0 release. However, I’m still tagging this release with the Beta moniker as I’m finalizing user documentation and a new website. Presio is now feature complete and stable enough to warrant a 1.0 release. A final release, along with the ability to purchase licenses is around the corner. You can download the latest version from the Beta page: http://www.ipresent.net/products/presio_beta.html

Release notes for Presio 1.0.110 (Released Feb 6, 2008):

• Many minor bug fixes and performance improvements
• New Image Editor Tool for annotating/drawing on slides
• New Copy Slide feature
• Drag/drop/reorder slides feature
• Windows Vista support
• Office/PowerPoint 2007 support
• Critical fix to allow MOV (MPEG-4) files to import properly
• New FLV import support for Synch with slides presentations

A few weeks ago there was a discussion over at Tony Karrer’s great eLearning Technology blog regarding a new “debate” surrounding “Rapid eLearning Tools”. A panel discussion on the topic, at the recently held eLearning Guild conference, seemed to spark some question as to whom these tools were intended for - subject matter experts, instructional designers, or other.

Additionally, much of the discussion seemed to focus on the definition of what a “rapid eLearning tool” was, let alone whom the intended user should be. My take was that ultimately, the content author needs to determine the best way to convey their message to their audience. It may require a a sophisticated simulation or simply a PPT w/ audio. It all comes down to using the right tool for the job. There are a variety of ways to create and distribute training and presentation materials over the web, but understanding your audience’s needs should help to decide on the right tool.

The term “Rapid eLearning” seems to have crystallized into a “category” that the likes of Forrester deems worthy of coverage. That’s good news for tools like iPresent Presio. However, I don’t think Presio would fit into this “category”. Presio is certainly about “rapid”, but it is much more of a “rapid communications” tool as opposed to an eLearning tool.

It’s nice to interact with others on these types of issues.  Doing so helps to better your understanding of your own product and where it fits (or doesn’t fit) into a given market.

I came across this very comprehensive blog/post today on all things screencasting: Screencasting Primer - For NTC Screencasting Panel. This is a great resource to bookmark the next time you’re looking for tips, tools, and best practices for creating a screencast. Beth does a great job at breaking down the concept and entire workflow of creating a screencast as well as providing many, many useful links. Great job!

I finally upgraded to Wordpress 2.  Migrating over was very painless.  I’m always impressed by this software.  So far I’m liking it very much.  I think the UI is quite a bit cleaner, and doesn’t get in your way as much.  I decided to upgrade mainly because I was looking for a new theme.  Most of the best themes are only compatible with WP2 so that pushed things a bit.  I was also having some pretty serious comment spam issues and WP2 comes with the Askimet spam plug-in ready to activate.  In the last few days, not one piece of spam has gotten through.  Very nice.  Here’s what I had been dealing with (1 month of spam):

I have been woefully allowing this blog to languish for quite some time now. I intend to change that. As I get closer to launching Presio I’m going to begin posting more about the product. Here’s a short list of topics I’ll be covering:

1. How it works
2. What it can be used for
3. What problems it solves
4. How it fits in with existing presentation and training tools
5. What markets and types of users I envision for the product
6. Design decisions that were made
7. Some history as well - Why I decided to build it

I’d like to mention one other item. I’ve recently made the decision to simultaneously roll out Presio along with its “companion” product: iPresent Online. My initial plan was to launch Presio, get feedback, improve things, repeat. Then when the time was right (ie. there was identifiable market demand) - I would launch product #2 - iPresent Online. iPresent Online is a hosted service for storing Presio generated web presentations. Well, things change, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it makes sense to offer both products at the same time.

One of the things that swayed me was a discussion with my very first beta tester. He owns a small medical device company and has a sales team distributed throughout the country. After creating his first Presio presentation for training his sales team he said, “This is great, I’m looking forward to having my team view this. Could you host if for me?”. I have had similar discussions with others since, and thus the decision to release iPresent Online along with Presio.

That’s the thing, lots of folks (particularly in my target market) don’t have a shared network server, or web servers, or ISP accounts, or “IT guys”. These leading edge users understand the value of creating web-based multimedia presentations to get their message across, but they just want it to work, period. Well, a big part of “making it work” is distribution. iPresent Online solves the distribution problem.

Stay tuned.