Making sense of Wi-Fi Sense - Different implications of Home vs. Business!

With the roll out of Windows 10, the feature that is ruffling the most feathers is Wi-Fi sense.

What is Wi-Fi Sense? 

Wi-Fi Sense lets you "automatically" share your password to access Internet using your router with a "friend". Before you get all hot and bothered, there are a few caveats:

• You have to first tell Windows 10 that you do want to share that particular router's information
• You then have to select which group of contacts (outlook, skype or Facebook) will be able to get this information
• The contacts have to have a Windows 10 device
• The password that is shared is encrypted
• The contact cannot share the connection information with their contacts without knowing the actual password - which they don't because it is encrypted.
• They cannot connect with Wi-Fi Sense unless they themselves as shared one of their own connections.

What does this all mean in practical terms?

Setting 1 - Home

The most likely setting is when you have a friend visiting your home and needs Internet access.

Scenario 1.

If the following four conditions are met:

1. They have a Windows 10 device
2. They have WiFi Sense turned on and are sharing one of their own connections
3. You have WiFi Sense turned on and are sharing you own Internet connection
4. They are in your Outlook.com or Skype or FB contact lists

Then they will be automatically connected to the Internet without asking you for the password.

They will not be able to share this information with their own contacts (unless those contacts are also your contacts in one of the three groups listed above).

WiFi Sense options in Windows 10

Thus this scenario does not pose much of a concern for me.

Scenario 2.

There is the alternative scenario that is more bothersome.  Suppose you did NOT turn on WiFi Sense.  Then they will have to ask you for the password.  Often you will just tell them the password or write it down for them.  If they have a Windows 10 device, they can now share this information with their contacts.  This is because they just need to know you password when they elect to share the connection information.

So my suggestion:

If a friend has a Windows 10 device, do one of two things

1. Turn on WiFi Sense so they get an encrypted password.  The conditions listed above in Scenario 1. would still need to be met.  OR a lot simpler:
2. Offer to type in the password for them (without them seeing it) on their device and select
   'Not shared'.  If they ever want to turn sharing on, they will be asked for the password which they will not have.  

Setting 2 - Small Business

Now take a different setting - a small business for example
They could actually turn WiFi Sense on and tell people to connect with them on Facebook.
If they do, they would automatically get free WiFi!
This might become a great marketing tool once Windows 10 becomes more ubiquitous.
Of course the person would need to have to use their own Internet access to connect to Facebook first and then they would be able to get WiFi through the small business or they could have added them on Facebook ahead of time.
I am not sure if this would work right now for FB pages or just for FB friends.  But with this does seem quite possible in the not too distant future.

Don't ban mobile devices from meetings; leverage them!

Just read a post on Techcrunch "Tech Is Making Meetings Worse, It’s Time For Digital Hat Racks" which recommends that we should make people check in their mobile devices before starting a meeting.  The author Nir Eyal feels that there are only rare occasions when attendees actually use their devices in a productive manner and thus these act as distractors.  

From Techcrunch linked to http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/09/digital-hat-racks/

This is issue is very similar to faculty members complaining about their students not paying attention during class, spending time on Facebook or texting instead.

My response to this post is that one can have very productive meetings when we use devices appropriately.  I find that meetings can be excellent working meetings when we have laptops and other mobile devices and use them purposefully.  I am involved in several standing meetings through out the week which follow the following model:

1. The team has a shared folder on Google Drive
2. Before each meeting, a document is created in the shared folder - the title is the date of the meeting
3. Participants populate the document with agenda items prior to the meeting
4. During the meeting one laptop is used to project the Agenda document on the screen
5. At least one other person uses another device, usually a laptop to load the same document and edit it collaboratively.  This device is often passed around among the attendees depending on who needs to edit it.
6. During the meeting we use the devices to
1. Look up information - rather than assigning the task to someone to look up after the meeting and thus postponing the decision making to the next meeting
2. Communicating - often via email or alpha pagers (yes we still use those) - send message to get answers or more information.  
3. Project data or web sites 
4. This information is entered into the agenda document which essentially becomes the meeting minutes.
7. Since everyone has access to the document, no minutes need to be emailed, or approved.  
8. While a lot of work does get done during the meeting, we of course make decisions about projects and this is captured on Trello.  We use Trello as a project management tool.  This serves to bridge the meetings by creating a list of to dos for each project and assigns these to a team member.  Team members review Trello between meetings and use this to organize their work and then update the agenda document for the next meeting.

This model has worked very well for us and we have expanded it to create a Google+ circle of team members.  This allows us to do hangouts for meetings where someone is unable to attend in person and also continue the conversation between meetings.  

The same model can be adopted for learning sessions, but the faculty need to be aware of and comfortable with technology tools that can help improve the learning experience and make the process more active, fun and efficient.

Google+: "Connecting and Sharing among People with Common Interests

The last few months a lot has been written about Google+, comparing it to Facebook.  I have personally found myself using Google+ much more than Facebook and I was not sure exactly why.  It was only recently when I tried to explain Google+ to some people that I gained an insight about this.

I started using Google+ because I like to try out new things.  I enjoyed exploring its various features and how to apply them to my work.  As I used it, I realized I was not going back to FB as much as I used to.  Initially I wanted to try and get my "friends" from FB over to Google+ and it bothered me a bit that they did not.  Then one day I realized it did not bother me at all.  I realized something that I think I knew all along, that at a very fundamental level Google+ and FB are completely different. How so?

FB's tagline says "Connect and share with people in your life".

My interpretation of "people in your life" is people you know or have known.  Once you connect with them i.e. "friend" them on FB, by default everything you post is visible to ALL your "friends".  The Pew Research Center in its report in May 2012 found:

• On average, users make 7 new Facebook friends per month; they initiate 3 requests and accept 4.
• Women average 21 updates to their Facebook status per month while men average 6.
• In a month, about half of our sample made a comment on a friend's content, and about half received a comment.
• Fewer than 5% of users hid content from another user on their Facebook feed.

Another key difference is the reciprocal relationship with other FB users.  Thus only after both users have mutually agreed to be friends can one see the other person's posts.

What this means is that till you agree to be friends you see NOTHING of what the other person posts and after becoming friends you usually see EVERYTHING that the other person posts.

Google+ at its very foundation was built on the concept of Circles and also allows Public posting which is very similar to a blog.

Public posts can be seen by anyone who follows you and are searchable on Google. People can comment on them, share them or +1 them.  You can see who these people are and view their public posts and decide if there are enough common interests that you can follow them back.  This leads to finding people of similar interest across the whole world - most often people you DO NOT KNOW.
People posting publicly are aware that these are open to the world and thus will not post private information like photos of their kids or what they had for breakfast.

Circles allow you to target your posts to specific people, and these are not visible to anyone outside the group (Circle) you specify.  This may seem to be similar to FB but it is not.  The list of people in your circles is unique to you.  Thus you could have a circle called Close Friends and have 5 people in that circle.  One of those 5 people may also have a circle called Close Friends and it may have 15 people in it.  You may not be in that circle.  These asymmetric circles can be confusing but allow for great autonomy in targeting your posts and filtering your stream.  The ability to mention specific people in posts allows you to include them in the conversation in a granular manner.

Create Circles based on you interest or projects

Now you can target your posts to those circles or keep them Public

You can filter your information stream using your circles and notification settings

Google+ allows you to share a circle.  Thus if you have collected a group of people with interest in HDR photography from across the world you can share it with other users.

The consequence of these differences are:

1. You are more likely to connect with people you DO NOT KNOW on Google+ compared to FB.  In this way it is a bit like Twitter.  
2. You are more likely to connect with people with similar interests.  The shared circles feature is a bit like Twitter lists.  
3. You are less likely to see uninteresting or irrelevant content on Google+ especially things that you feel people should have shared with a fewer folks. 
4. Due to the ability to filter your feeds and adjust your notifications (in a very easy manner) you feel in control of your information stream.

A 2 circle Google+ Migration Strategy for Newbies.

There has been a lot of agonizing over the Google+ circles.   People are trying to sort their "friends" and family and acquaintances into all kinds of groups and overlapping subgroups.  Opinions range about how many busy people will take the time to understand the nuances of the asymmetric circles.  Will this scare people away from trying Google+?

A very simple solution could be as follows

Create 2 circles

1. Former Facebook folks
• These are all the friends and family that you "friended" on FB.  This meant you saw everything they posted, and vice-versa.  - This maybe a good time to clean house ;-)
• This assumes that like the majority of FB users you did not care to select a subgroup of your friends when posting.
• You will immediately start seeing anything these friends post in your stream.
• When posting something you decide if you want it to go out to all your former FB friends.
• When reading your stream, with one click you can convert it to a FB equivalent
2. Former Twitter folks
• These are all the folks you followed on Twitter.
• This will allow you to read all their comments just like in Twitter
• You can post publicly what you would normally post to twitter.

You cannot control who will read your posts.  You can hope that folks you add to your circles will reciprocate.  Then they can read your posts depending on how they filter their stream. 

Now you are all set.

When posting in FB mode, post to just your FB circle

When posting in Twitter mode, post publicly

When reading in FB mode filter by FB circle

When reading in Twitter mode, filter by Twitter circle

As time passes and need arises, start creating subgroups of your major circles.  Periodically check who is adding you to their circles and reciprocate appropriately.  Once all your contacts are in G+, may be tempted to stop checking FB, Twitter, (and your mail?)!  Till then there is a Chrome extension to share on FB and Twitter from Google+.  You can find it here.

Fortunately for Twitter Google+ has no hashtags.

Now this is not what I did when I started but trying to explain Google+ to a couple of friends, I realized that we learn by comparing anything new to what we know.  Since we know FB and Twitter, we keep comparing Google+ to these.  That is fair enough, and this model will help folks get used to Google+ and they can figure out the exceptions and limitations.  There are many nuances but rather than become a case of paralysis by analysis, just start and be extra careful about what you post till you get the nuances.  

Model for a Journal Club using Google Reader and Facebook OR if the prophet does not go to the Mountain.... bring the journal club to FB!

Challenge:
Create a collaborative learning environment for discussing key journal articles for our residency program.

Proposed solution:
Create an automated method for posting key journal articles to an online discussion group.  Each article abstract should be a separate post in the forum with space for comments.

Assumptions:
With tighter duty hour restrictions, going online might be more acceptable.
Most residents use social networking (e.g. Facebook) and have Google accounts - so our solution should try and leverage these 2.
It would be more likely to succeed if we go to where the energy is (Facebook) rather than create a new site with a new log in.
A few faculty members or Chief Residents would take on the task of filtering and selecting the articles.

Model for using Google Reader and Facebook Groups for an Internal Medicine Journal Club

Steps:

1. Faculty member/Chief Residents set up Google Reader accounts
2. Subscribe to RSS feeds for some selected Journals in their specialty.
3. Periodically (at least weekly) review the feeds and share some of the most relevant articles in Google Reader
4. Find the RSS feed for their shared items list
5. Create a Group in Facebook (possibly a closed group so only members can view and comment)
6. Authorize the Facebook Application RSS Graffiti for this Group. (only group admins can do this)
7. Create a feed in RSS Graffiti with the RSS feed of the shared items list
8. Ensure that specific settings are modified and test for the posts to show up within about 30 minutes.
1. You have to authorize RSS Graffiti for your Facebook account before it will work on your Facebook Group.
2. You have to be the admin for that FB group
3. Edit the feed and under the Filter tab, make sure you change to date to when there are some items to show.  By default it is set to the time of creation of the feed in RSS Graffiti
4. Edit the feed and under the More tab, make sure you are posting as yourself and not as the Group.
9. Invite/add members to the Group.
10. Enjoy!

Screenshot of the Journal Club in a Closed Facebook Group

Resources:
Google Reader
Subscribe to important medicine journals with one click (you can also click on the button in the right column of this blog)
Facebook Groups
RSS Graffiti Blog and RSS Graffiti FB app

Collaborative learning in Medical Education - Where is the Patient?

For a while now I have been muddling over a few thoughts in my head. These were prompted by

1. Medicine's incredible success at treating acute problems and thus bringing chronic problems to the forefront e.g. patient survives a stroke but is left with bed sores, incontinence OR survives an acute heart attack and is left with congestive heart failure. A William Schwab put it at a recent grand rounds, "Success brings failure" and thus our success in treating acute problems has brought us an excess of chronic problems.
   
2. Increasing popularity of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and Second Life. A recent study that I discussed earlier showing students were more likely to use Facebook for a course discussion than the University's learning management system.
   
3. Medical education moving from a traditional "talking to the boards" model to a small group collaborative problem solving model - can we use this momentum for including patients into the learning "group"? This thought was resurrected by a post I read by Anne Marie Cunningham.
   

It seems that learning how to treat an acute problem is something we can do well in our current model of education which has minimal involvement of the patient (in most schools). As our population ages, has more chronic problems, a model that does not involve the patient in the learning process is not going to succeed.

Thus we know what an obese patient with poorly controlled diabetes needs to do to bring his/her condition under control and maintain it there. Patient also often knows this. Still optimal outcome occurs only rarely and if it does, it is not sustained.

In managing chronic conditions, the patient has to learn to take control of his/her condition and the physician is only a part of the solution to make this happen. Our medical students learning is designed to occur either in classrooms or in hospitals - both of which are perfect for acute condition management. The exposure to outpatient chronic condition management where they can interact with the same few patients longitudinally does not occur in most schools.

The reasons for this are mostly logistic. Scheduling students to be in the clinic the same time as specific patients is a logistic nightmare. How about a model using social media?

Can we have students create limited, private accounts in a social media site like Facebook or create a specific site using Ning and invite consenting patients to be their "friends". We could have a list of patients with different conditions and abilities to use these social media tools. The sites would not be accessible except to invitees. The students would collaborate with a set of patients over their entire medical school experience. The patients would post/tweet about their symptoms, office visits, hospitalizations, test results and the students would learn/read up about these and explain these to the patients. In addition, they would work on skills like motivational interviewing, negotiated goal setting to help the patients take better control of their conditions.

This model will allow students to learn the role they have to play in management of chronic conditions and prepare them for the future!

Chemistry of Facebook

Innovate has an interesting article (Have to go through free registration to read the full article) on use of Facebook to create an online community for students enrolled in an Organic Chemistry Lab at Iowa State University. The authors (Jacob Schroeder and Thomas Greenbowe)compared the use of WebCT and Facebook for discussions regarding the course material. While all 128 students were required to use WebCT (e.g. to get their grades), the use of Facebook was optional.

The main finding in this exploratory study was that while only about 40% of students used the Facebook discussion board, they used it in richer ways (posting photos of molecule structures, links etc) and for a longer period. The discussion group on WebCT was not used much and quickly petered out.

We don't know from the available data whether students who used Facebook were already using it socially? The authors were also not able to survey the students regarding the reasons why they used or did not use a specific tool. Thus we are left to wonder...

One guess is that if you are already using Facebook, clicking over to your Organic Chemistry Group to check something out or put in a comment would be quick and easy. Problem is getting the other 60% of students to also use this tool. Would love to know if it was their learning style, attitude towards technology, use of other social networking sites, or some other reason that prevented them from joining this discussion board. Is it even important to get them to join? What if only 10% of students had joined? What is the critical mass for something like this to be meaningful? The activity required instructor time to moderate the group. If a number of students were using another site like MySpace, would it be possible to moderate 2 groups? What about 3?

What if WebCT had a facebook widget or the other way around so both the WebCT and Facebook users could participate without having to log in some where else?