This week so far in a nutshell

As I mentioned in my blog entry last week, the PlanLive project isstarting to make its strides with quite a few changes and different group setups.

One of my tasks together with my teammates is to bring a commnunity together for PlanLive as the Platform selection will be made soon, so I hope to have a decent community by then. There's a few different social network sites that we're working with but Facebook is probably the most obvious candidate.

Another task that I've been working on is to find suitable applications in which you can use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). There's Adobe Indesign for example but my task is to find other programs with the same functions.

Breath of fresh air - back to blogging

A few weeks hahs passed since I blogged/tweeted last, things just seemed uncertain at times and I personally felt in a slump when it came to blogging.

However, we had a few meetings last week and this week as well. While the main goal of this project is still the same, about everything else changed and got switched around.

Long story short, starting from Today, the Widget and Pedia team are pretty much non existant at this point. However, there's sub projects now and all of them shall contribute to the PlanLive project.

Doubt I can say much more at this point, however I hope to be blogging again from now on.

Another new week

As is usual on Mondays, the week started out early with a meeting, after that I could focus on my project.

I didn't make a blog about yesterday, which was intended as I shall be doing very similar things throughout this week, which is trying out many different Wiki platforms.

Basically I download/try the many different platforms and see what features they have etc. So at this point it's to try and reduce the list of potential platforms.

If something unexpecting pops up in this process I shall inform it through my blog.

A productive day

Today has been a quiet and productive day, I started off the day with searching through multiple wiki platforms which are needed for the PlanLive project. I did find one platform Yesterday and thankfully I managed to find another seven wiki platforms which caught my eye. Due to the different configurations/hosting plans etc, the total of eight platforms could be divided in two groups, with four platforms each.

I've been keeping myself busy with two platforms(one of each group) and the day pretty much went as I throught it would, a solid day whilst messing with the platform. While doing that I documented the things that I thought were good/not so good, this could range from User Interface to general looks and usability of the editor.

The diving into various platforms shall probably continue for quite some time, but for now it's weekend again.

Have a nice weekend

A welcoming Wednesday

Today has been a informative day, moreso then a productive day personally, But I'm quite satisfied as I feel like I have a much better direction when it comes to this project.

This morning I basically continued on my idea on how to keep users interested in Social media websites, I did this until the lunch-break.

Not long passed Noon our two projectleaders gave an presentation about their recent visits to workshops about social media and what the plans are for this current PlanLive project.

AFter the presentation and several questions I feel more satisfied, as it feels like I (and probably most of us) have a better idea to where this project is going. I already found one platform that caught my eye, for it's popularity among the platforms and the ability to add extensions (Google maps).

I'm looking forward to Tomorrow now and hopefully mess abit with this platform.

A calm day

Today has been quite a productive day, been able to work on two different things throughout the day, making nice progress on each "mini" project of mine.

As I've mentioned over the last few blog entries, I was able to install Adobe Dreamweaver so I decided to do some web development for myself. Through the Morning and just after Noon I worked on a simple web page. After getting familiar with the controls/user interface, I managed to complete the simple web page.

The rest of the day I have been spending time on my idea on how to keep users interest, thankfully I didn't have writers block Today so I managed to continue on that idea aswell. I also uploaded the first file to the projectleader this Afternoon.

I dolook forward to tomorrow, as there should be a meeting lasting for some two hours.

A start of a new week

After a autumn holiday (of which I spent 3 days at the Plan offices) the teams were back together. Though my enthusiasm I had on Sunday soon decreased for a short while.

As I did spent last week at the Plan offices, I pretty much completed the things I wanted to complete. That being the revisement of the English approach plan, make some of the Plan pilot program countries digital (Word document) and last but not least, spending time on my own idea on how to possibly keep users interested in social media.

However things weren't that bad really, I was able to succesfully install Adobe Dreamweaver Today and I hope to install Adobe Photoshop tomorrow so that I have my web development/media tools in place and probably mess around with them for a bit.

Summary of this week

Another has passed for me (As I work from Mondays - Thursdays) so I'll be having another one of my weekly rundowns.

The week started off with receiving a list of potential PlanLive platforms which I noticed in the PlanWidget room, not really able to discover the pro's/cons which each platform, I was glad that I don't have to decide which platform to choose.

As our Approach Plan needed revising in Dutch and an English version, I decided to take the task of revising and making an English version myself, which lasted through Tuesday and the morning of Wednesday, the latter part of Wednesday I was diving into Google Earth again and discovered another way to add Google Earth to my testblog, though still needing the plug-in.

As I received some information about a PlanWidget team member (Irving in this case, http://irvingm.blogspot.com/) about a sprout he made, apparently it contained Yahoo maps and I took the oppurtunity to dive in that, though quickly went back to Google Earth/Maps as I prefer that over Yahoo, also have been drawing some layout idea's on paper. I hope to do abit of web development experimenting next week.

As for next week, we're supposed to have a Autumn holiday period (goodness knows why), but as I don't feel the need for a holiday yet, I shall probably work also next week on Monday atleast, most likely one or two more days aswell.

Wrapping up on Wednesdays

Started off the day with finishing the english Approach Plan (Which got posted on PlanLive Basecamp this afternoon). As I did most of the translating Yesterday, Today was mainly about getting most things in their place and do some minor adjusting for the Plan.

I also managed to draw someone idea's for the layout when it comes to PlanPedia page within PlanLive, which is quite interesting as it shall become a knowledge base, yet we want PlanPedia to have something that other knowledge bases don't have.

Which brings me back to Google Earth as that is quite the interactive tool. Thankfully I did find another method for placing Google Earth onto my test blog, and I personally think the latest Google Earth entry on my testblog is cleaner then the old one I had. Probably a subject that shall keep my mind occupied aswell tomorrow.

One final note, I managed to get Adobe Dreamweaver on my laptop, which is used for Web developing. However when I tried to install the program I discovered that the laptop runs on Windows 2000 *sigh*, Ah well.

Another final note: http://planpediatest.blogspot.com/ is the link for my test blog, however you shall need the Google Earth plug-in to actually view Google Earth

Tiring Tuesdays

Well this Tuesday was tiring atleast, however I doubt it shall make for an interesting entry if I write what I've done Today.

As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, our documents (Or Approach Plan) needed revising and editing. I took up the task and started to edit the Approach Plan, As it is originally written in Dutch, the first round of editing was also Dutch.

However I intend to place on the PlanLive basecamp in the next day orso and that meant an English version was needed also. I tried to upload the document to Google Translator so that I would have a base document so to speak, however the Translator was absolutely rubbish in this case so I decided to make an English version myself.

Thankfully I managed to finish 95% Today, so it only needs little adjusting here and there.. Hopefully it shall be on Basecamp tomorrow.

Another new week

As is usual on Mondays, the Plan employees had their weekly meeting. The different employees tell what happened recently or what is about to happen in the near future.

As for myself, I had a look at a Powerpoint file which was about PlanLive and much to my surprise I saw the PlanWidget team had a list of the various platform. I decided to look into the different platforms and my conclusion was that i'm rather happy that I don't have to choose which platform to take.

Later on in the day I did some researching into programs that could suit my own needs when it comes to developing and I think Adobe Dreamweaver fits the bill, together with Notepad++ (However I've worked with Notepad++ before)

Weekly summary

As my weekend already started in a way (Placement is from Monday-Thursday), I thought I would share in short how this week went and what I anticipate and expect from next week.

The start of the week has been mainly about the team getting together and finishing our document, after a few meetings it was noted that it needed some revising, so I intend to do that over the weekend. As for Google Earth, one of my teammates managed to get it working on his blog Wednesday, while I managed to get my own Google map, work in Google Earth and on my testblog. However both methods are different so we should look at that on Monday hopefully.

As for next week, what seems certain at this stage is that the tema shall come together and throw around idea's for the PlanPedia page, as Wiki pages can be done on various ways.

Have a good Weekend

Wonderful Wednesday's

Perhaps I exaggerated a bit with the title but it was a very solid day nevertheless. Fairly early in the Morning we had a meeting with two of our project leaders to discuss our document that we put together over the last few days. I'm happy that some mistakes got filtered out as it does give a better view generally and also it won't be as likely that one makes the same mistakes.

After our lunchbreak I decided to try my luck on getting Google Earth to work on my testblog, I wasn't able to make a breakthrough however I shall return to Google Earth in a bit. So I decided to ponder about an idea which could be related to the PlanLive project as a whole however I won't go into details.

Back to the Google Earth issue, ironically one of my teammates also researched into Google Earth as the day was waning and he did manage to put Google Earth into his blog, thanks to his usage of keywords (or lack off). I couldn't help but feel abit silly afterwards.. All the same, I shall try to poke my teammate to get his blog link and if I get my hands on it, I shall inform it in a tweet.

Meetings continued

Our team was complete Today so we were able to put all bits and pieces together for our documents, after giving each other feedback on what works and what doesn't work we went back and revised the parts that needed attention. After revising the parts we made one document out of it and we're hoping to have a presentation about it soon.

As for myself after being able to import Google Maps in my testblog, I'm now trying to import Google Earth in my blog as it's more interactive, so I shall probably continue with that for the next few days. Also perhaps we shall be able to show the document to one of our bosses and hopefully it shall need little revising and perhaps make an appointment for the presentation.

Start of the second week

The start of the second week within Plan Nederland and it was quite the productive day. As is usual on Mondays the first meeting was at 10 AM (9 AM UK time), most of the Plan Nederland employees come together and talk about things that happened recently and things that are planned for the nearby future.

After that meeting our team put the documents together that we made either Thursday or over the weekend and it was decided by our team leader that the documents were good and only needed a little bit of editing. Later that day we had a meeting with one of our bosses that steer this project and after that meeting I know in what things I shall have to research the next few days, so I'm satisfied with that.

Also it was decided that both Widget and Pedia teams shall try and contact Plan employees who work in different sectors so that we get to know how things work basically within Plan and in turn they shall get to know us and what we do.

Meetings and research

Today saw another meeting between the PlanLive Widget and Pedia teams, basically a progress report of the research both teams have done over the last few days.
While I did take a few peeks and glances on the days prior, it was interesting to see what the widget team worked on and they seem to have many solid idea's when it comes to Widgets.

With the Pedia team I do have a clearer view now what should/shouldn't work on the Pedia pages due to idea's being thrown around within the team. However I think we're all anticipating the PlanLive workshop on the week of 19th October.

The current plan for the next few days is to work on the documented plan and if all goes well, our team should have it ready by Monday and then we'll discuss it also.

Experimenting(2)

Like I mentioned in my blog Yesterday I did some experimenting, mainly between Google Maps and Google Earth and of the various things I tried, I prefer using Google Maps instead of Earth, mainly because with Google Maps you can mark POI's (Points of Interests) and can add links/pictures etc.

I also created a Wikipedia page Today concerning Matungulu in Kenya, which can be seen in the Google Map example that is shown below this text.

I also tried to make my own Wikia today to perform tests with google maps, however oddly enough my Laptop is having hiccups with that site so I'll continue with that later on. However here is a sample of what I played with Today.

One final note: I do recommend to zoom out when you see the map, as it shall be zoomed in as close as possible, probably be a few clicks until you can see the proper World map.



PlanPediaTest weergeven op een grotere kaart

Experimenting

The next few days are all about experimenting, I've been able to download and install Google Earth and I've been looking for ways to incorporate both Google Earth and Google Maps onto websites and discovered that both programs had API's (Application programming interface). So I'll look more into that tomorrow.

Also our team have been exchanging idea's on how to make a fancy but suitable layout(s) for the Pedia project we're working on and we hope to make a start tomorrow on our documented plan, how things shall work/look like etc.

First real day

Today was the first proper day you could say, as it was the the first time the teams received a game-plan (albeit rough) so that means it will also be the first time the teams shall have to stick their heads together.

Personally i've been keeping myself busy with various websites that are related to my project and I hope to install Google Earth tomorrow (tried that today only to discover my lack of admin rights..).

I hope to have a few short write-ups in the next few days concerning the websites/programs I experimented with.

Communication training

Friday evening I returned home from a trip which concerned Communication Training. There were of course the students who started their placement within Plan Live, but also many other students who have their placements at other company's, reaching about 150 people in total if I were to guess. The training started on Wednesday Afternoon until Friday Evening.

The training could be divided in two parts, the indoor part and the outdoor part. The indoor part were basically classes in which everyone discovered their communication style (There were four of those: Controller, Promoter, Supporter and Analyzer. I was the supporter role).

From there on we learned how to adept our communication styles towards the other three styles, depending on what your personal style is. This can be useful as all four styles have their own characteristics and quirks.

The outdoor part were for the most part activities and moral games to help building the teamspirit of the various placement teams.

The experience was interesting and the atmosphere between the various teams was good.

PlanLive introduction

Today was the first day I started with my placement (internship) at Plan Nederland (which obviously stands for the Netherlands.. or Holland).

As can be soon on http://twitter.com/PlanLive - I was one of the ten students who started today.

Of course it's hard to work on one project with a group of ten, so to keep things rather simple there are two project teams - A PlanWidget team and a PlanPedia team

My focus is on the PlanPedia team and while both teams are working towards the same potential end product, both teams do different things.
PlanWidget focuses on small site applications while PlanPedia focuses on making the PlanLive site more streamlined, modern and easy to use.

I hope to reveal more information about this soon and if so then I shall surely update it within my blog.