Home | Consulting | People | Case studies | About us  

Consulting

Strategic advice, consulting and training on the effective use of new media and ICT for international organisations

Our approach is all in our motto: Think strategy before technology. Technology is making people dizzy these days, and soon they lose sight of the reason why they're using it.

But if you look at the words carefully, a different meaning will emerge: ICT stands for information and communication technology, and communication is something we experience naturally every single day. Communication occurs between people and we use information to successfully get our message across, be it an idea, a piece of data, a project. There's always a human, at the other end of the machine.

Well, our idea of effective communication is all in there:

  • define who you want to talk to,
  • define what you want to say and the effect you want to get,
  • choose the most adequate tools to open the channel.

Design and technology can be useful tools only when you've pinned these things down and when goals drive your new media projects.

By thinking strategy, we keep an overall view of all it takes to communicate effectively with new media. We believe it takes deep understanding of how communication works, mastery of design to forge beautiful and useful tools, superior management to achieve success and technology to make it real.

Our consulting services are meant to be easy-to-apply and memorable problem-solvers. We have packed our expertise in 8 ground-breaking services that will gear up your organisation to better exploit new media technologies for more effective communication and distance learning. We called them toolkits because they integrate the range of skills and expertise needed to solve the problems they were created to address.

***

MOTO - Marketing of Training Online

Marketing of Training Online


If you want to use the Internet as a new, effective and ethical marketing tool for your training organization,

If you are seriously considering to make your Web site found on all major search engines and directories,

On MOTO you can learn how to make your training institution visible online,

And discover how to market and effectively promote your training services on the Web.

 

MOTO is in fact the first online solution for those of you who are actively searching for reference, expert advice, support and direction in developing and executing effective online marketing strategies for your training institution.

MOTO has been created because few or no other resources exist online at this time that attempt to provide timely and interactive dialogue with their readers on this topic.

With MOTO the goal is the one of creating a unique solution-oriented reference hub for all academic and training institutions and organizations realizing the immense potential of marketing through the Internet.

MOTO can allow its expert creator and professional staff to share their fundamental know-how, expertise and discoveries, while creating tools and content that their readers would be willing to subscribe to.

Read more about MOTO

Visit MOTO at: http://www.marketing-of-training.com

 

 


Please look for yourself at what we can do for you. Read about the work done for other organisations like yours, or ask us to provide you with a free appraisal of your specific project needs at ikonos.sas # agora.it. We will be happy to provide you with immediate feedback and response within 24 hours.

What we do best is to listen to your needs when your organisation is dealing with daunting strategic decisions about its online life.

 

THINK STRATEGY,
BEFORE TECHNOLOGY
Toolkit

How to develop a sound strategy for your online communication/e-learning project that is NEITHER based on your internal IT department's fixations NOR on purely aesthetic and visual reasons

  • Comparative market research and analysis
  • Briefing and project definition
  • Definition of technical specifications for online/multimedia projects
  • User profiling and user requirements
  • Human resources selection and staffing
  • Project budgeting and planning

Case study:
Building an online global information system, in multiple languages, that must be accessed by novice users worldwide.
See DAD-IS http://dad.fao.org

 

 

 

ONLINE STRATEGY

"IT-FREE"
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Toolkit

How to organise content and communication in an efficient and usable way, so that content is easily updated, well-organised in customer-driven categories, and manageable by non-technical people.

  • Content inventory and management
  • Information architecture and mapping
  • Communication strategy
  • Engineering strategy, system analysis,
    use cases
  • Content and knowledge management

 

 

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

MULTIMEDIA
PROJECT MANAGERS
Toolkit

How to guarantee your online project success, on-schedule development times, and on-budget completion.

  • Project management and coordination
  • Project prototyping
  • Usability inspection and testing

 

 

 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

GLOBAL INFORMATION DESIGN
Toolkit

How to design effective visuals and usable interfaces, based on international target audiences' needs and technical requirements, that provide a uniquely distinctive look, intuitive navigation, easy-to-understand information and fast access.

  • Image/photo research
  • Identity design
  • Interface and navigation design
  • Interactivity and interaction design
  • Information design
    • for CD-ROMs
    • for website systems
    • for key presentations


Case studies:

Making your website more effective, reliable and accessible, especially in terms of: compatibility with other browsers and operating systems; ease of use; clear navigation; fast display of relevant content when accessed by any computer, from any part of the world.
See FAO Fisheries Website http://www.fao.org/fi/default.asp

Designing your new look according to scientific research and not to graphic designers' whims.
See the new ILRI website at http://www.cgiar.org/ilri
See the FIGIS Reference Table Management System Interface at
http://www.fao.org/fi/figis/index.asp

 

 

 

DESIGN

GLOBAL PERFORMANCE TESTING
Toolkit

How to anticipate your online system reliability, compatibility, performance and speed under best and worst circumstances.

  • Performance testing
  • Compatibility testing
  • Stress testing
  • Project testing - alpha and beta testing

 

 

TESTING

BUILDING
LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Toolkit

How to develop, nurture and maintain a growing, loyal and actively contributing community of interest online.

  • Community building
  • E-moderating
  • Building e-learning community online
  • Collaboration and participatory work online


Case studies:
Creating a participatory website capable of contributing knowledge and research findings to its own network through peercollaboration and exchange. See http://www.fao.org/participation/
See also our non-profit initiative Master New Media at
http://www.masternewmedia.org/

 

 

 

COMMUNITY BUILDING

 

 

 

3-STEP
DISTANCE LEARNING
Toolkit

How to create your first distance learning program. How to convert your present courses to Web and CD-ROM formats. How to prepare and train your faculty for online distance learning.

  • Course design
  • Interaction design
  • Evaluation and assessment
  • Testing and certification
  • E-learning platforms
  • Interactive learning technologies
  • E-moderating
  • Online marketing of training services
  • Online customer service

 
Case studies:
Developing your first distance learning program utilizing tools and services that do not break your wallet and allow you a gradual entrance into this new field.
See http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/ilt-1

Improving the quality of your e-learning program by strategic use of interactive technologies and online learning approaches.
See ILT Showcase at http://www.iltshowcase.com/

Finding the most effective ways to train your faculty to introduce interactive learning technologies and distance mentoring methods to their curricula
See also our non-profit initiative Master New Media at:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/

 

 

 

Last updated June 2001

 

DISTANCE LEARNING
Home | Consulting | People | Case studies | About us