Learning2.0 : Journey to about2findout.com

...are the equivalent of a few pictures. (Most come from slides on slideshare.com. Don't remember exactly where, sorry.)

Today I launched another new item on about2findout.com : the What's New? page. You can find the page via the navigation box in the Quiz Zone, or via a new link in the top right corner of the main screen.

It shows you what has happened in the last 1, 7 or 30 days.

- Top scorer and top country of that period (for this week it is elgoto with 60 points and Belgium with 95 points).

- New quizzes

- New persons who joined

- New questions

Labels: about2findout, new

I 'stumbled upon' a new bookmarking site, called AddThis.com. It allows you to submit a page you like to many social bookmarking sites at once (like Digg, StumbleUpon, Technorati, etc). So I changed the bookmarking buttons on the question and quiz pages (actually, I moved them to the 'share this' popup) and replaced them by the AddThis.com button. The button with a pull-down menu doesn't work together with the AJAX JavaScript, so I had to add the static one.

Labels: about2findout, addthis.com, del.icio.us, social bookmarking, stumbleupon

I've implemented an automatic adjustment of the difficulty level of questions. As you know, the difficulty level is indicated by 1, 2 or 3 gray dots, and depending on the level you can win or loose 1, 2 or 3 points when you solve the questions. The level is set by the author in the Author Zone (properties tab).

But once a question has at least 10 views, the level gets updated automatically once a day by Otto, the new automatic agent of the site. The rules are:
- If more than 66% of people know the answer, the level is 1 (easy)
- If between 33% and 66% of people know the answer, the level is 2 (moderate)
- If less than 33% of people know the answer, the level is 3 (difficult)

Otto (the automatic agent of the site) is implemented in ASP.NET. I looked hard to find an asp.net task scheduler, but couldn't find one. Many implementations use a console application that calls a web service, or use the Windows Task Scheduler. I don't have access to either on my hosted environment at seekdotnet.com. If you do control your own server, those solutions might work for you:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/ASPNETService.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/WebJobScheduler.aspx

I don't need fancy schedulers that run if the application is down or idle, so I just added some code in the global.asax file in the Session_End section. That way every time a session is ended, the code runs and checks the database if a job should run. It works.

While I was at it, I also made Otto send messages when your questions reach 10 or 100 views, or when someone adds you as a contact. Otto only speaks English, and I hope that is not a problem.

Labels: about2findout, asp.net, new, otto

I fixed a few bugs in the points system. You can no longer get points for your own questions. And when you publish a new question or quiz, you get 3 points (previously 5), but you get one extra point if the question has feedback, and one more extra point if your question contains more information in the form of links or text. (So that is still 5 in the end.) Here are the new rules:

• Only logged on users can get points, so join for free to keep track of your score!
• You get or loose points when you answer questions.
  • If you answer correctly, you get 1, 2 or 3 points depending on the difficulty of the question. The difficulty of a question is determined by how many people have it right.
  • If you answer wrong the first time, nothing happens because everyone makes mistakes (but smart people only make them once).
  • If you answer wrong on the same question again, you loose 1, 2 or 3 points depending on the difficulty of the question.
  • There is a grace period of 30 days wherein you cannot get scored for the same question again. You can see if you've done a question lately by the green or red squares in the overview tables.
  • You cannot get points for your own questions.
• You get double points when you have 7 or more on a quiz.
  • When you score 7 or more on a 7of9 quiz, the points you scored on that quiz are doubled. You only get the extra points when you have made all 9 questions.
• You get points when you publish a question or quiz.
  • You get 3 points when you publish a new question or a new quiz.
  • You get an extra point if you provide feedback with your question.
  • You get an extra point if you provide more information (either via text or via links) to your question or quiz.
  • You do not get any additional points when you republish a question.
• You can loose all your points when you are violating the code of conduct.

Labels: about2findout, new, points

I've implemented a long awaited feature on the site: you can now see what questions you already did.

On the question and quiz tables in the Quiz Zone and Club Zone you now have icons to indicate if you have done a question before. If you hover over the icon, you even get the question QuickCode and the last date you took it. On the image you see the latest questions from my contact Diego (elgotes) on Spielberg. They are difficult :-).

Means you did the question or quiz successfully in the last month. You can do it again, but you can't get any more points during this period.

Means you did the question or quiz unsuccessfully in the last month. You can do it again, but you can't get any more points during this period.

Means you did the question or quiz successfully but more than a month ago. You can do it again this time and see if you still remember. But beware! If you are wrong points go off.

Means you did the question or quiz unsuccessfully but more than a month ago. Now is the time to prove you have learned something and do it again. But beware! If you are wrong again points go off.

Labels: about2findout, help, new

I've updated the search page. Now you can search for people in the same country.
- Go to the search page via Quiz Zone --> Search
- Click on the tab 'Search for people'
- Select the country in the drop-down box (it should be populated with your own country)
- Press OK

Other improvements on the search page include a link to the questions created by the persons you search. Under the navigation box you can also see how many questions are in the database and how many of them you have solved. If you click on any of the search result questions, you can just click the Next Question button to go to the next question in your search list, no need to go back to the search page. And searching for people will now get you a direct link to their questions. Did you also know that you can click on the underlined headers in the table to sort it? Click once for sorting ascending, twice for sorting descending.

I was surprised to see 17 members from India, out of the 57. Welcome guys and girls!

Labels: about2findout, new, search page

Google Analytics uses a new tracking code to make free statistics of your site, its visitors and how they got there. The new script to include in your pages is the one below (change the ID by your own), but the old one will keep working for another year. (I can't paste script in here, so it's a picture. Click to see larger.)

Labels: google analytics

I wanted to add an animated .gif image when you got a new message. So I searched for on online animated gif creator and I found one: www.gifninja.com. It's very easy: upload up to 5 images to the site, and voila, with the click of a button you've got yourself a little animation. My gif is probably too subtle to attract attention, but I'll try it out like it is for now.

Labels: animated gif

The site launched a month ago with the AIDS Day Quiz. As I used Google AdWords to promote that quiz, there were about 80-90 visitors a day. Later it dropped back to 20 per day and went up again around the time the Christmas Quiz was launched. That one was promoted again via AdWords, and linked in my Christmas wishes to everyone. Biggest hit was on December 21 with 145 hits. Yesterday on Christmas I had 70. Here are some statistics from the first month of the site, provided by the free service Google Analytics:

- I had 1512 unique visitors (83.10% new visits) that viewed 12745 pages.
- That is an average page view of 7.06.
- People stay on average 4 minutes 36 seconds on the site.
- 47.37% only visit one page.
- Browsers: 73.91% use Internet Explorer, 22.99% use Firefox.
- I had visits from 106 countries. The top 5 country list is: USA, India, UK, Belgium, Canada.
- 32.24% is referred via Google, 23.38% via advertisement
- I spent 62.71 euro on Google AdWords advertising, and got 710 clicks for it. My add showed 410.392 times.
- There are now 225 published questions in the database
- There are now 59 registered members
- The Hall Of Fame after one month:

Labels: about2findout, analytics, google adwords, statistics

Tonight question number 200 was posted on the site. (Actually, there are now 204 published questions in the database.) Nr 200 is part of the 'Belgium Quiz' by Stijn. Thanks Stijn!

QuickCode: DYAZ5
URL: http://www.about2findout.com/quickcode.aspx?code=DYAZ5

Labels: about2findout, belgium

One of the things you do when you buy a new computer is clean up your old mess before you migrate everything, and move to new applications. So I'm also taking the opportunity to switch to a new reader to follow all the blogs, Flickr photo's and other RSS streams on the might Internet. I used to use the build-in reader on my mail client Thunderbird. But I wanted to switch to a web-based reader, that I can access from everywhere and has a nice and easy overview of what's new or unread.

So I made a choice between Blogliner and Google Reader. Blogliner is the oldest of the two and still very popular. Google Reader is more recent and had a bad start with bad reviews in the beginning, but after some upgrade earlier this year many people are happy with it. I also decided for Google Reader, because of the better interface (Google interface is just Google, but Blogliner's is really last century.) So far it is a joy to follow my feeds via Google, it integrates well with my browser's feed subscription capabilities, you can mark a post as unread, give it a star, add tags (or labels as Google names them), etc. And it's quite fast. Besides, both Ralph and Geert are using it, so who am I to doubt my friends? :-) The downside that I see is that once again I'm using another Google service. They now know what I search for (Google Search), what's in my agenda (Google Agenda), what I read (Google Reader), what I blog (Blogger), who reads my blog (Feedburner), how my web site is doing (Google Analytics), what's on my computer (Google Desktop), my home financials (Google Docs), and I just today paid them 50 euro for advertisements (Google AdWords)...

Labels: blogliner, google, google reader, RSS

So what is Google up to? Nobody seems to know. They just announced a wikipedia-competitor (Knol). They are building their own routers and servers, invest in renewable energy, make a 3D web based on pictures they take on the streets of cities, release an offline version of their Google Docs suite soon, will create a Google Sites product that replaces the simple Google Page Editor, etc etc. They are trying to find out what you should do tomorrow and what job you should have (Online Educa speaker comment: so what's new, sounds much like my wife today), etc.

This is a funny and old movie on the fiction merger of Google and Amazon to create the ultimate media company:

http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/

Labels: google

Today I started a new blog, this time not at Blogger, but at Wordpress. I'm happy with Blogger, don't get me wrong, but I want to experience the difference. And above all, for the new blog I want to be able to postdate articles so they automatically get published on a future date.

So far I find the service very similar, with a little more ease of use for Blogger. Time will tell which one I like more.

The purpose of the new blog called 'Quizman's Quiz Qlog (QQQ)' is to promote one new quiz per week. It's one of the initiatives I'm taking to make the site more well known. After building the basics in 2007, the focus for 2008 is going to be on growing it and getting people to visit, use and like the site. (And I'll keep improving it naturally.) Today I got the nicest compliment from Diego, a friend from Argentina who visited my site: "Its not just for fun, its like a drug!!!! hahahaha. Excellent site! and im learning a lot too!!Hugs back ". And that's indeed what's it all about. (The learning and fun, not the drugs thing.)

Labels: about2findout, blog, blogger, quizman, wordpress

Ho, ho, ho!
The Christmas Quiz has gone live. It has 9 questions on Christmas, the history of Christmas and Santa Claus. So, what do you know about it? Only one way to find out...

QuickCode: DGZMU
Link: http://www.about2findout.com/quickcode.aspx?code=DGZMU

Labels: about2findout, christmas, quiz, santa

Another new feature added today on the Quiz site about2findout.com is the Question Card or Quiz Card. When you publish a question or quiz, a card image is automatically generated with the first lines of the question on it. Clicking on the card will directly get you to the question or quiz. Via the promote link in the Author Zone, you can get the HTML code to add such a card to your website or blog. The cards are also used internally to offer random questions to visitors.

Labels: about2findout, new, promote, Question Card

There have been updates to the question and quiz screens.

- The 'more information' and 'share' links are now moved to the navigation box on the right.
- The share link shows the QuickCode as well as the direct URL to the question or quiz
- Quizzes also get scored for anonymous users now.
- The tags are always visible and moved to the central part, under the question information.
- The quiz page only shows the green score box, not the red one and the question backgrounds
have been updated.

- There is a new part that shows the last three people who succesfully made the question or the last three people who scored 7 or more on the quiz.
- The links to post the question or quiz to Blink, Digg, Furl, Google, Magnolia, NewsVine, Reddit, Spurl, Technorati and Delicious now work.
- Three random other questions or quizzes are suggested in the right bar.

Another small improvement is on the search page, that now also searches quizzes. But best of all, when you click on one of the questions on the search page, you can navigate to the next on the list without having to search again. And on popular demand you now get an indication if you have already answered a question recently. Recently means in the last 30 days.

Labels: about2findout, design, new

It's genetic: sometimes I just need to get me a new piece of hardware. My father has home improvement tools he never uses (the kind that can screw in a dark place, around a corner and upside down). I have the same genes but I buy computers and other gadgets.
It started last week when I was in the Aldi: the new computer they were selling caught my eye. So I had to replace my now 3 year old computer. In the end I didn't buy the Aldi one because I don't really need a Blueray disk yet. So I bought the one they sell online at www.medionshop.be (the Aldi computers are also made by Medion). For 100 euro more it lacks features I don't need such as blueray, wireless, wireless keyboard, but it does have a QuadCore processor instead of Duo, 4 GB RAM instead of 2 GB and 1 Terrabyte (2x 500GB in RAID 0) of hard disk drive. It comes with Windows Vista, and I personally haven't had any problems with Vista or any crashes. In fact, I quite like it. Of course, this computer should be more than powerful enough to run it properly.
To make the system complete, I bought a new screen too. The Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW, a 22 inch widescreen flatscreen monitor with 3000:1 contrast and 2 ms response time. Bought it for 286 euro at pixmania.com. The screen is absolutely wonderful and makes a big, big change. It's like a small TV and has a very nice (and award winning) design. Only the foot is a bit unstable. The new computer does have a problem: the hard disks make A LOT of seek noise. So much I was thinking of returning it. I read on the internet that also the new ones in the Aldi make the same loud noise, as they also have Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 disks inside. But after a few days working with the system, I decided to live with it. Maybe it's a reason to buy another system next year :-) .

Labels: aldi, new computer

There are a bunch of new features available today on about2findout.com. The first one I'd like to introduce is the QuickCode.

Every question and quiz has a unique code with numbers and letters. A question has a 6-digit quickcode, and a quiz has a 5-digit unique code. You can find the codes back in various places on the site, for example under every question. You can also find it back in the promotion page of your own questions. (Go to Author Zone, and click on the link Promote next to one of your questions.)

The home page now has a new box in the upper left corner where visitors can directly type in the QuickCode and go to the quiz or question at hand. That means you can share your quizzes and questions by just giving other people the QuickCode and the site name.

Try it: the QuickCode for the Aids World Day Quiz for example is AMH7E .

Labels: about2findout, new, quickcode

A week ago I launched the site with the World Aids Day Quiz. (World Aids Day is held on Dec 1 every year, so it seemed appropriate as the site opened that day.) For promotion I toyed with the Google AdWords advertisement service.
So, how did it go?

- AdWords: I had advertisements for 7 days, and set a maximum of 5 euro/day. In total I spent 32.87 euro, which gave me 327.933 ad impressions. 451 people clicked on the ad, which means a CTR (click through rate) of 0.13% and it cost me 0.07 euro cent per click on average.

- AdSense: On the other hand, I earned 3.03$ the same way from people who clicked on the ads. There were 1835 ad impressions on my site with 22 clicks.

- That already shows the brilliance of the Google business model :-). I must say, AdWords is a very well designed service and very addictive. You can see real time how your campaign is doing and bid on keywords. Is there a medical name for Google AdWords Addiction yet?

- On the site itself, I saw an increase in average visitors/day from 15 to 75. I count 986 visits of which 859 unique visitors. They stay on average 3.40 minutes on the site.

- The 5 countries with most visits are in order: USA, India, Belgium, UK, Canada.

- 73% of my visitors use Internet Explorer, 22% uses FireFox.

- The quiz itself: the 9 questions are answered between 130-175 times, only 15 people created an account.

- The most difficult question is the first one: only 44% knows the actual number of AIDS/HIV infected people. Do you? (Hint: the number went down compared to last year, but only because of improved statistical methods.)

Labels: adsense, Adwords, AIDS, World Aids Day

Freerice.com is not just another site where you can solve questions. Apart from building a better English vocabulary by guessing the meaning of difficult words, you also donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations per correct answer. Learning meets charity. Nice initiative!

In my first try at the site, I managed to donate 200 grains of rice. I'm not even sure that's enough for a sushi.

Labels: charity, freerice.com, learning

The Online Educa Berlin conference is done since Friday evening, but I stayed the rest of the weekend in Berlin. So here are some of my afterthoughts on the event:

- The presentation styles of the slide shows have changed. More and more people use very visual slides with only a few words, and no bullet points. I like it better. On a side note: I've tried to so similar with my presentation this year, and I've put it on slideshare.com and in my other blog if you are interested. There is still a lot of difference in the presentation skills of the speakers, but I guess with such a mixed audience it is difficult to screen out the good presenters only.

- I finally saw the famous '100$ laptop' with my own eyes. It is smaller than I imagined, my adult fingers could not really use the tiny keys on the keyboard. But from what I could see it looks like a well designed, fit-for-purpose device. I do believe learning has a great role to play in the development of nations and regions, but it is not a field I find the time to keep up with. Apart from the 100$ laptop a very interesting project 'The hole in the wall' was presented, about how children in rural areas in India can teach themselves to use a computer and speaking English.

- On Friday evening attendance drops of course because people need to catch their planes, but I still had about 30-40 people in the session on corporate learning I was chairing at that time.

- Benjamin is still part of the staff, still plays the piano and still has a cute smile.

- Content-wise, I did not notice many new themes. That's not specific for this conference, it was the same at the Masie one I attended earlier this year. All the things we were talking about now, we had been talking about last year: mobile learning, can Second Life be used for learning, learning 2.0, serious gaming, etc. So no new hypes or themes. I did see however much more practical and concrete cases on the topics above, where some years ago it was still rather theoretical or conceptual. Maybe that is a good sign for the learning profession: we don't need new hypes every year, we finally have the time to improve the things we have.

- Online Educa is a unique conference in that it combines academic and corporate perspectives. Coming from the corporate side, it is also a unique opportunity to hear what universities are currently doing with their students in terms of technology supported learning. Quite frankly, it is scary (but good scary). Oh boy, most companies have no clue what will hit them in 2-3 years when these students will enter the workforce. I hope the organisers will actually make this a main theme for next year's conference: "The Nextgens are coming!" An entire generation of people that live and learn native with technology will massively enter the workforce at a time the baby-boom generation is leaving. That makes they will be on the better side of the negotiation table. And it also makes the learning profession will have a historic opportunity to prove its value in capturing and transferring knowledge and skills between totally different generations. It's gonna be interesting times... What better place than the Online Educa conference to talk about this, having an audience that understands both sides?

- I had the impression there were slightly more academics this year than last year, and the number of big corporations has dropped in favor of a lot of smaller and mid-sized ones. A lot of innovation happens at these little players. My understanding is that a lot of university projects have found their way in start ups that bring the research to the marketplace.

Labels: nextgen, online educa