A new open source project from FaceBook, HipHop for PHP, could bring big improvements for PHP developers.  From the description on Facebook’s Developers site HipHop for PHP will translate PHP code into C++, reducing cpu usage by as much at 50%.  And for a big site like FaceBook, written in PHP, this is a pretty significant improvement.  The ease of writing in PHP, with the performance benefits of C++ — sounds like a great combination.  There is nothing except an announcement so far, but expect more very soon.

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What features are needed in a workplace social network system?  And could BuddyPress, the WordPress multi-user collection of social networking plug-ins, be used to power it?  Yammer uses has recently taken off at my workplace, and its success here is serving as a real example of the types of communication and collaboration people are looking for in the workplace.  Here are a couple of thoughts, observations and opinions: Read the rest of this entry »

How do we learn and pass on knowledge in the workplace?  A recent project to come my way involves setting up a web-based tool for various operation manuals used by students service in professional work assignments in our program.  The perception from faculty and staff is that students have stopped really studying the manuals and that perhaps a move to a digital format would allow easier searching, and reduce the need for thorough reading, and make the guides more useful.  Yes I say, we need to make this happen as quickly as possible.  But I wonder if simply moving the text on-line will make it any more likely to be read. A recent article at A List Apart offers the notions of narrative, interaction and discoverability as crucial for successful sites for learners.

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I want to like Drupal, but despite a fair amount of effort I haven’t been able to get over its shortcomings.  Four years ago we had a need to create a web-driven resource library serving dialect training mp3s to students.  I did some research and found a really great model powered by Drupal.  I’d heard a bit about the system, and after researching it sounded like a good fit for our needs.  But as I started digging into a test implementation I found myself feeling a little overwhelmed, so I hired a consultant to serve as a technical resource.  We continued that relationship over the course of 2 months, with weekly phone conferences which were really training/technical consultation calls.  I got the application up and running, and even expanded its functionality over the last year with the help of a really dedicated student worker.  Now I’ve done a fair amount of PHP work, and extensive work with other open source systems like WordPress — and this student worker also had a really strong PHP background.  Neither of us ever got to the point of really liking Drupal, or feeling like we wanted apply it to any other projects.  Why?

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The development of new learning/teaching should be a partnership between teachers and students –nice to see there are some folks out there actually leveraging this partnership…

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Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2009 is out, and 5 higher-ed workplaces made the cut.  One of the things that struck me about the universities on the list was the frequent mentions of a commitment to education and training of staff — and important distinction to remember in these days of budget tightening.  Cornell’s mention of training focused on individual strengths and work alignment echos the recommendations of an excellent Ecar article:  Competency Based Career Ladders for IT Professionals.

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