Affordable Project Management Software for the Mac

All of the project management software I’ve suggested is compatible with Mac OS X because many are internet based (in other words project management software or collaboration software tools based on cloud computing).

Google WAV is increasingly a free option for project collaboration, communication, and management.

Six Revisions suggests “15 free tools for Web-based collaboration” including Wetpaint, Skype, and Google Docs.

I would also take a look at the free or open source collaboration software suggested by Wikipedia.

Zoho has a robust set of collaboration tools for the small business or enterprise. It operates in the cloud, so is available for Macs and PCs. Here is the pricing structure for Zoho.

Finally, Base Camp is a relatively low cost project management and collaboration software which can be used on the PC or Mac. Alternatively, it is a service you pay a low monthly fee for (packages start around $24 to $49 per month), instead of a one time fee.

I would test drive a couple of these options and see which project management software option worked best for you and your organization.

There are several jobs that debaters tend to go on to:

• teaching high school and coaching HS debate
• coaching college debate as a graduate assistant
• coaching college debate with an MA or Phd (more the later than the former)
• being a lawyer (next step LSAT and law school)

Most tend to go into academia (PhD or high school level teaching) or go on to be lawyers. Oddly very few tend to go onto two obvious ventures they seem well suited for (to me this is more a function of recruiters and human resources:

• public relations executive
• internal communication
• technical writing
• online content editor
• book editor/book editor assistant
• market research
• investment consultant
• trainer
• life coach
• career coach
• legal assistant
• management consulting
• non-profit advocacy
• non-profit management
• public speaking consultant
• web programmer/developer
• technology consultant
• entrepreneur
• professor of public administration (natural fit)
• professor of non-profit management
• professor of mass communications
• professor of anthropology

I hope this list of jobs for debaters has been helpful. I think creating a portfolio (the online portfolio is very popular these days via blogs for writers or flickr for artists), networking, husselling (by asking questions of people who hold the job you want), and getting experience whether via internship or volunteering is the best way to get your foot in the door. Finally, this resource from the University of Georgia called “What do I do with a degree in communications?” may be helpful as you search for a possible career path. It also includes a list of suggestions for getting your foot in the door via an entry level job.

Here are some resources for finding lincoln-douglas debates available online. The first two sets of resources may not follow the National Forensic League format, but will likely provide a slower style debate. The last is Tournament of Champions and national circuit style lincoln douglas debate (hence they are incredibly fast–at least for new debaters). If you know of other lincoln-douglas debates available online, free free to leave a note in the comments section.

Note: NFA Lincoln Douglas is more policy style, while National Forensic League debate is more value debate oriented. Even as TOC style debate is moving in a more policy oriented direction.

So Cal Lincoln-Douglas

NFA Lincoln-Douglas

Victory Briefs recordings of Tournament of Champions debates on the International Criminal Court

Of course Debate Central has the LD Videos for learning how to do lincoln-douglas debate.

The RIAA and the record labels are asking for draconian measures to be laid at the feet of people who may be guilty–but are asking for exorbidant damages against individuals. For instance, if I were to illegally download 7 songs….shouldn’t I only be held responsible for paying $7 that the music tracks would cost on iTunes (in fact the music companies only make a fraction of that). At worst the crime might merit a punishment of $35 or $70, but nothing beyond. Thats not what the Recording Industry thinks. These are two questions (along with a contributor and commentor Alex at Joel Fights Back) which I hope are asked of the relevant individuals in the recording industry:

# Howard Singer, Warner Music Group Corp.
# JoAn Cho, Universal Music, Inc.
# Jennifer Pariser, Sony BMG Music Entertainment

Q1: Can you name any other case where statutory damages have been awarded to a plaintiff at a rate at (or near) 750 times the ACTUAL loss suffered by the plaintiff?

Q2: Isn’t it true that civil damages are TYPICALLY calculated at a rate of no more than 10x the ACTUAL loss suffered by the plaintiff?

How does the punishment possibly suit the crime? How can this possibly be called justice? If the record companies win anything approaching these exorbitant damages has justice and fairness really been done? And will the record labels actually give the artists any of this money and specifically in proportion to the damages??? Will any of the bands come out against the labels? Apparently “music rights” “copywrite” “IP” and the like are all code words for abuse, harass, and milk the customer for all their worth + more? This is ridiculous and makes a mockery of justice and our justice system? The mere thought that record labels could terorrize a consumer in this way makes me shudder from the inhumanity + cold callusness of the record execs.

Live on the Green Launches Concert Series in Nashville TN:

The Nashville Business Journal reports:

“Nashville has a unique identity as Music City, and I can think of no better way to celebrate our local talent than to host a free concert series in the heart of downtown,” Dean said in a statement.

Team Green will incorporate sustainable practices into Live On the Green, including recycling, reusing materials, reducing energy usage and inviting participation by local healthy food vendors.

The concert series, starting Sept. 3, will be a welcome addition to the city’s free recreation options, which have suffered since the collapse of Dancin’ in the District and Uptown Mix, two popular outdoor concert series that ended several years ago.

You can subscribe to email updates at the Live on the Green website and/or follow them on Twitter.

I’m curious what Jeff Bezos next move will be. He’s moving Amazon into the cloud computing business, which looks to be huge and to greatly reduce the inefficiencies associated with businesses developing software applications that run online (commonly called software as service).

I’m curious why he doesn’t start offering streaming video in that scenario at a cut rate. He seemingly could make big inroads into Netflix (of course people like watching videos on TV more than the internet, but these two devices are increasingly becoming one and a $50 adapter is a small price to pay for internet streaming on your television). Essentially, he could become the iTunes of video. Perhaps, Bezos fears that Mr. Jobs looks better positioned in that market.

You can also check out “Amazon Taps its Inner Apple” at Fast Company
Will video be the next thing Bezos takes on after cloud computing and the kindle???

This is an interesting and fun project that a non-profit, church, or activist group could take up. I’m also curious about the way virtual objects for instance in a Facebook app or another social network might be summoned to share the movement online (although I still think rubber bands are a vital component of the memory process)

If you liked that video…you may also like this entrepreneurship video from Stanford:

7 Ways to Avoid Firing and Layoffs During the Economic Downturn

The Wall Street Journal recently highlighted these seven alternatives to firing:

1. Ask workers to take day off without pay. Field employees at Zurn Plumbing Service Inc. of Chamblee, Ga., take a mandatory day off each week without pay, their hours cut from 40 to 30. Office workers do the same every other week, saving the company about $7,000 a month in labor expenses.

2. Manage workers’ schedules more efficiently. At Samovar Tea Lounge in San Francisco, restaurant workers get a free massage when the owner doesn’t have to pay for overtime. It no longer allows its 60 employees to clock in early, even encouraging them to clock out early.

3. Find something for them to do. Anything. Infinite Care Home Health Inc. of Duncanville, Texas, found volunteer work for its 38 full-time employees at local clinics during down time. They get paid for their time, with some using it to recruit new clients.

4. Cut back on salary. Office workers, including executives, at All Steel Structures Inc. of South Holland, Ill., took a 10% pay cut. The owner himself stopped taking a salary, except for during the holidays.

5. Participate in work sharing. About 18 states have what’s called WorkShare, which gives companies the ability to reduce full-time employees’ hours by getting compensation through state unemployment insurance funds. In the Maryland program, in which employers must reduce hours by at least 10% but no more than 50%, the number of businesses signing up for work sharing has at least doubled this year from last year. In Oregon, work-sharing unemployment claims were up 433% in January compared to the year before.

6. Lend your workers to other companies. Rhino Foods in Vermont, which makes cookie dough for Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, recently sent its 15 factory workers to Autumn Harp, a nearby lip balm maker, for a week to help the company with its holiday rush. Employees were paid by Rhino, which invoiced Autumn Harp for the hours worked.

7. Train existing staff to do more. Luxury Retreats in Montreal moved eight of its 75 rental agents from areas such as product development to sales and a personal assistant to the accounting department.

I think aggressively bartering services should be high on the list. Additionally, I think allowing the company to vote with one of the options being a small percentage decrease in pay or a 32 hour week, where individual employees don’t take the hard economic hit of losing their job in a down economy. Second, invest in the future. Make targeted moves to where the puck is heading, which is the advice that Warren Buffet would follow when creating his strategy. In fact the entrepreneurial mind views problems as opportunities (what seems like a struggle could be an an untapped opportunity for your organization).

The one caveat is if you have a person in your organization who you were probably going for fire anyway due to inability to perform effectively or work in your organization.

What are your ideas for avoiding layoffs and firings during this economic downturn?

How to Find High School and College Speech and Debate Coaching Jobs

After looking at the Google results for speech and debates they are generally messed up for speech and debate jobs. So if you are looking for position openings in speech and debate, I hope this list of resources is helpful for getting a job (for employers this is also probably the best place to find speech and debate coaching position descriptions).

Speech and Debate Jobs

Debate Cooperative (Debate Jobs Forum at Debate Cooperative)

NDTCEDA Listserv (although mostly for college debate jobs)

Speech coach on Indeed

Debate coach on Indeed

Speech coach on Simply Hired

Debate coach on Simply Hired

For Lincoln-douglas debate coaching jobs you can check out Victory Briefs where they host a coaching classifieds section.

Hit the k21 education jobs in the public and private space. Its worth looking at K-12 job spot because it came up in the results, but I think the jobs here are minimal.

Also check the Higher Ed job sites for your desired job position.

Speech and Debate Coaching Jobs at the National Forensic League

Debate Jobs (not a good resource at the moment–all jobs from April)

Other listservs for speech and debate.

I’ve included Indeed and Simply Hired because they aggregate job posting from other sites, which theoretically means they are more comprehensive for finding jobs.

Best of luck in your speech and debate coaching job search!

Feel free to leave suggestions for other debate coaching job resources in the comments…

Free Policy Debate Camp Lectures and Debate Institute Files from Georgia Forensics

1) GA Forensics List of Free Debate Evidence and CX Camp Lectures
The folks who produce the Georgia Forensics website have created a list of debate camp lectures and free debate camp evidence files on the high school poverty debate topic for the 2009 to 2010 debate season:

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase social services for persons living in poverty in the United States

The evidence and files are from several (awesome) debate camps:

Cal National Debate Institute, Dartmouth Debate Workshop, Emory National Debate Institute, Georgetown Debate Seminar, Gonzaga Debate Institute, Kentucky National Debate Institute and University of North Texas Mean Green Workshops.

2) Free CX Lectures and Policy Debate Evidence from Planet Debate
You can find a second list at the Planet Debate Blockhouse which has free files along with the files they sell. You can also check out this free debate textbook or the policy debate dictionary from the Michigan State debate institute.

3) Other Policy and CX Debate Resources
Here is a demonstration debate from Emory Debate Institute. My guess if you are teaching novices next year or students who have not gone to camp this is probably in the top 3 resources you need to show those debaters. Of course there are a host of free cx debate resources at DebateCoaches.org created by debate coaches in the NDCA. Finally, here is the poverty search engine created specifically for the high school debate topic.

Also, thanks to Georgia Forensics + Planet Debate + all the high school debate camps for putting thee resources together!

Top Higher Ed Tech Blogs by Technorati Ranking

This is an ongoing project (until I finish it of course)….if you have suggestions feel free to leave them in the comments. I’m posting this mainly because I’m interested in finding out who else is out there talking about technology in higher education. If you have a suggestion…feel free to add some in the comments section. (Technorati wasn’t exactly an open book on this question…)

1) Wired Campus Blog (Authority 722)

2) Steven Downes (Authority 460) and Half an Hour

3) Bava Tuesdays | Jim Groom (About 40 to 50% | Authority 103) [you can also find him at Jim Groom.net]

4) Open Content (BYU) (Authority 47)

5) The Ed Techie (Authority 43)

6) Education Technology and E-learning @ Compassion in Politics (Authority 40)

7) Disruptive Library Technology Jester (Authority 34)

8} Blog Higher Ed (Authority 18: some stories)

Other Associated Education Technology Blogs

College.Alltop

Higher Ed Web Tech

Matthew Hertzberger

Creating Lifelong Learners | Matthew Needleman (Authority 53)

July 6, 2009

Why Do We Need a Technology Literacy Certification Curriculum?
Increasingly there are micro-tools which empower workers to publish and businesses to run efficiently. But how can training be formalized and valued within organizations? And how can organizations know if a person has all the requisite tools and experience? I firmly believe there is a need for technology literacy certification.

Given the perfect storm of cultural change that is rapidly erupting, the time is now for career and business 2.0 knowledge/literacy skills. Although there are a plethora of issues such a literacy program could include–I believe the following form the fundamentals for such a certification:

• Enterprise 2.0 tools for cloud computing, software as service, and Google apps
• Advanced Google search skills
• Advanced social search techniques
• Blogs, wikis, video, and podcasts
• Perhaps productive social networking using Facebook, Linked in, Ning, Jigsaw, and blogs.
• Assessing digital vs. non-digital alternatives. (tracking resource, funding, and hours saved)
• Dealing with information overload
• What are the demands and struggles of the knowledge/creative worker today (and what will they be in the future)
• How have the fundamentals of communication (ethos, logos, and mythos) changed in the web 2.0 communications ecosystem?
• Techniques for dealing with virtual teamwork and project management (learning to use the collaborative infrastructure and software as well as work effectively with human motivations, failures, goals, and aspirations)
• How do business and information travel in the world of flat earth and globalization.
• Content vs. People
• Optional: open innovation + Wikinomics
• Optional: Visual communication
• Optional: Stats and analytics
• Of course advanced techniques and best practices could form another level of certification.
• In could include more general business and career oriented info

At this crossroads in technological history its imperative to have a defining criteria for someone who merely uses Google to one who is a skilled Google ninja.

There could be woven into a curriculum which had both a strong experiential and business oriented project based learning as well as a strong emphasis in the humanities and cultural trend watching.

I’ve discussed this topic in various capacities before:

• Web 2.0 for Higher Education
• 21st Century Skills by Tony Wagner
• The need for media literacy 2.0 at the college level (and in enterprise)