G-Cube Blog

Microsoft and Facebook recently announced beta release of Docs.com, an online document viewer and editor which is integrated with Facebook. With docs.com you can upload, create, and edit documents using the web application, and Facebook integration allows you to share your documents with friends, work collaboratively on documents, and discover documents shared by your friends.

Microsoft already has Office Live – a document sharing and viewing platform, and has also recently launched beta version of MS Office Web Apps that comes along with Office 2010 Beta – this allows you to access, edit, and share your documents (MS Word, PowerPoint, & Excel) through the web application.

All these platforms store files on the cloud. MS Office Web Apps does also give option of installing the platform on enterprise servers.

With all this activity on web apps and cloud, the thinking in Redmond clearly seems to be-

1. Web Apps hosted in cloud is where action is rapidly shifting to
2. Enterprises would continue to manage sensitive data on their own infrastructure (for now atleast)
3. Users on social platforms want to/are ready to share and discuss more than just pictures, and videos

I am however curious to find out what kind of content actually gets shared on docs.com, as that would also be an indicator of whether users are ready to consume productivity enhancement content via social platforms, or if they are there just to connect with friends.

Would you use Docs.com (I am there on it, but like many others waiting for my activation code)? What would you share (How To’s, Product Manuals, Knowledge Bytes, Newsletters, Course-ware)?

e-learning is surely changing the way business leaders think of training, to train their executives across diverse verticals. Today more than ever, companies are turning to e-Learning for their ever increasing training requirements.

And when we talk of creating an e-learning course, the first step is that of Instructional Designing (ID). Simply put, it is integral job of ‘thinking up’ the whole course. The expertise needed for this is not only a strong hold on language and communication but an all-around understanding of the learner needs and the design aspects rising out of them. Analytical skills are necessary as is a strong creative bend of mind.

But in spite of evident need, Instructional Designers in India rely and learn the most from experience in the field. While this is true for all professions, it is especially true in this case as special courses in the field are scarce and the degrees which do exist impart more theoretical knowledge than practical experience. In fact, most of the theory of ID can be researched and found on the Internet. But the task of putting that theory into practice is tedious and often, impossible for a fresh ID aspirant. Recruiters too are aware of the need-gaps, but agree to hire professionals with just a background in communications. The whole process ignores much of the entire skill set needed for a good ID professional.

So, with increasing demand for good designers for e-learning courses and no real solutions in sight, G-Cube brings the Mountain to Mohammed. The latest initiative of G-Cube is a special in-house course on Instructional Designing, called ID-Edge. The course is divided in three parts – Beginners, Intermediate, & Advanced with each semester running for around four months and with on the job training between each semester.

ID-Edge will steer the selected recruits towards a profession that gives them an opportunity to explore and hone their talent. While some theoretical knowledge is a part of the course, the main emphasis will be on practical knowledge of how a learning course is built from scratch. Not only the course will provide functional knowledge, but it will also sensitize the learners about the end-to-end development process, customer-facing communication, and cross-functional challenges.

And what will G-Cube gain?

Well, we will gain good people on our team, and hopefully some good karma points for creating a pool of trained Instructional Designers for the industry!

Please contact hr@gc-solutions.net to find out more about the course and enrollment procedure.

We are proud to announce that G-Cube has won Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India 2009, and Technology Fast 500 Asia-Pacific 2009 award, a program which identifies fastest growing companies in different regions worldwide.

The rankings are based on revenue growth over 3 year period. You can read complete news release on our website.

Some of the key takeaways from the award ceremony that I wanted to share here on the blog -

1. There are 71 companies from India in Fast 500 Asia-Pacific rankings. This is second only to China (& Taiwan) and is yet another proof of solid recovery being demonstrated by these two nations.
2. Mobile VAS providers form the largest industry sub-segment in Fast 50 India rankings, and all of them are upbeat about coming few years as well. The mobile story is thus going strong. If we, the elearning industry, can come up with some compelling applications in mobile space then there is a quite a potential out there for everyone.
3. e-Learning companies continue to grow at a fast pace, and form one of the top sub-segments in the ranking list.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our clients who made us a part of their learning & development programs, and all G-Cubians who have made this possible.