We’re also planning on making some improvements to the way we publish release notes moving forward. This will include creating an RSS feed category for release notes so that you can receive them through your RSS reader if you prefer. We’ll announce that in another blog post  when it’s up and running. Also, we’re working on improving the format of the notes. If you’ve got comments or suggestions please send them our way via our contact page.

Thanks for your patience and consideration as we make improvements to our site!

My guest for this episode is Gavin Conaty.  Gavin is the founder and owner of Evalation and one of the very first Sprout customer.  His team was working on Ben Harper’s web site and promotions when we initially launched Sprout Builder.  We partnered with Gavin and the Ben Harper web team to create one of the very first sprouts.  You can see that particular sprout in our launch video from DEMO08. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Play Sprout Conversations #1 – Gavin Conaty

Ingrid Michaelson sprout

Links:

Evalation – http://www.evalation.com

Ingrid Michaelson – http://www.ingridmichaelson.com

Sprout Builder – http://sproutbuilder.com

Secret Road – http://www.secretroad.com

I’ve been a college teacher for about 20 years now and I wish Sprout Builder was around when I started out.  I discovered Sprouts a few years ago when I needed a widget for my website and I’ve seen the capabilities of Sprouts grow to the point where I’m convinced it could be the kind of teaching tool educators have been asking for for a long time.  There are a lot of potential uses for Sprouts in education, but I’m really excited about this one: creating online projects.

I’m a psychology teacher, and despite what you might think, psychology is not all about Freud.  Like any science, psychology is about conducting experiments and surveys.  When the internet blossomed in the mid 90s I wondered whether student projects could finally go online.  Typically students choose easy to set up studies (like asking people to compare the taste of Coke vs. Pepsi, or to memorize lists of words….snore….) and they ask 10-15 of their friends or dorm-mates to act as subjects.  After a while that gets pretty boring for them and for the teacher.

What are the alternatives for teachers who want students to create fun projects where they can also collect data from a lot of people?  Well, as I see it we’ve had these options:

• HTML: you can create an online project in which participants go to a web page to read instructions, look at pictures, etc., and collect data from them by filling in HTML forms, but that takes a sophisticated knowledge of HTML and perhaps also of Javascript.  For the busy teacher, this is not going to happen.
• Adobe Flash: I love Flash.  I’ve been programming in Flash and actionscript for years.  And that’s what it takes – years – to be good enough at Flash to create an online project.  Flash carries a very steep learning curve.  Teachers are content experts, not developers.  So Flash is not the answer either.
• Software to Create Online Projects: there are packages educators can buy to create projects.  These can be easier to use than HTML or Flash, but the downside is that they are very expensive (upwards of $1,000), they are usually designed for professional researchers, and they are overkill for the average teacher who just wants students to easily create interesting projects, or for the teacher – distance ed or on the ground – to create online lesson plans.

That’s where I feel Sprout Builder comes in.  You can inexpensively create online projects without any coding knowledge.  I’ve created two of them for my podcast, The Psych Files, that were fun to make and I think are good examples of just the beginning of what can be done with Sprout Builder.  Here’s what Sprout Builder has that teachers and students need:

• Multimedia: Sprout builder let’s you drag and drop audio, video and images onto its “palette”. Now we’re no longer limited to doing projects with just lists of words.
• Multiple “Conditions”: students can use pages in Sprout builder and buttons to control exactly what participants in a project are allowed to see and do.   Although participants won’t be able to taste Coke or Pepsi, I think I we’ve been down that road enough times.  Now we can do projects that are more involving.  Here’s an example of a rather simple project I created for The Psych Files podcast:

• No Programming Skills Required: No HTML, JavaScript or Actionscript to learn.  Navigation from one “condition” (page) to another is easily done with drag and drop buttons and then selecting the actions of the buttons from a menu.
• Data collection: Here’s what really solves a big stumbling block for teachers: how can students gather real data from participants around the world?  This is what is so cool about what Sproutbuilder has recently done: integrated with Google Forms and PollDaddy.  Both of these sites can collect student data and are easy to set up.  Google Forms is of course free and you’ll get everything you need from PollDaddy’s free account.
• Publish to the Web: Most teachers are using blogs and Sprout Builder publishes to most of blog pages in one click, without anyone needing to know any code. Ridiculously easy.  With a tiny bit of HTML coding knowledge, the embed code is easily placed into a web page.  Here’s an example of a lesson/homework I made in Sprout and placed on a web page.
• Inexpensive: finally, teachers can create three sprouts for free, or get an inexpensive educator account to make as many Sprout as they want.

I could go on, but then you’ll think I work for the company.  I don’t.  I’m a teacher and I see a wonderful future for Sprout Builder in the education space.

Learn more about Michael Britt’s project, The Psych Files Podcast — Psychology podcast and resources for students and educators.

“The most valuable brands in the world are experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement. The relationship is apparent and significant: socially engaged companies are in fact more financially successful.”

In the report, the four leaders, Starbucks, Toyota, SAP and Dell, detail their best practices. All companies talk about their commitment to social media and the organizational changes that allowed for their success.

ENGAGEMENTdb: Most Engaged Brands On Social Media –

Sproutbuilder: #SWAT Summit was great. A lot of exciting fervor around the companies who build apps and social media marketing tools. 9:07 PM Jul 18th 2008

I have realized that we’ve come a long way in the Twittersphere. As of June 23rd, 2009, we have reached 1800 followers and are at the tipping point where our followers will soon exceed the number of people we are following.  I have constantly tried to keep my tweets conversational and representative of Sprout as a personable start-up, sophisticated software company and a business with clear goals.  There have been customers who’ve raised concerns, given praise and started conversations with us on Twitter.  I have always been there to answer their questions and respond in a timely manner.   It is this transparency and willingness to openly communicate that separates us from many organizations out there who aren’t embracing social media.

Having just attended the #140Conf put on by Jeff Pulver, my passion and understanding of twitter, as it pertains to business and the community, is much stronger.  Teaching a super model how to tweet while I was there certainly didn’t weaken my passion towards Twitter.  A lot of great minds came together and discussed the power of a platform that is so effective at addressing communication in the “now.”  Jeff Pulver goes into more depth about what the #140Conf meant to him and the community in this post and you can see all the panels/speakers here.

Yesterday marked another huge milestone in our presence on Twitter.  I had been spending the last couple months working to secure a new username for our Twitter account.  Since my first tweet, we have been using the username: Sproutbuilder.  This made a lot of sense when the only product we were promoting was Sprout Builder.  Sprout is our company name, not Sprout Builder.  I am very proud to announce that we now have the Twitter username: Sprout.

I need your help to ensure this transistion is smooth and efficient. When replying, linking or telling your friends about us on Twitter, all you need to tell them is @sprout or twitter.com/sprout I also encourage you to open up the conversation and send your tweets my way!

Photo credit: jenconsalvo

Check out more of Ryan Blais on his web site.

What and where is the Sprout community?

The Sprout community consists of four wings:

• Ning User Community
• Facebook Fan Page
• Twitter Account
• Myspace Profile

The Ning community serves many purposes but Ning’s forte is their ability to bring users together. In our Ning community you will find a forum, videos, community specific blog posts and more.  The forum is the perfect place to ask open-ended questions to other Sprout users.  This forum is browsed occasionally by Sprout employees but it is designed to be driven by the users for the users.  Join us.

The Facebook fan page is a place where fans of Sprout can upload photos, videos and message each other.  We will post any Facebook specific news directly in our Facebook Fan page.  Join us.

Twitter brings the most up-to-date notifications to all our followers.  You will see the occasional twitpic or cool “sprout of the day” filling up our twitter stream.  It is also a way for users to get directly in touch with Sprout in short 140-character messages.  Join us.

Lastly, Myspace. We know a lot of designers and musicians flock to Myspace to express their artistic abilities.  We have created a professionally designed Myspace profile where you can hang out with us.  Join us.

All of these communities are managed by Joey Mucha, the Sprout community manager and brand evangelist.  You will be seeing a lot more of Joey with design competitions, community events, speaking engagements and more.

Keep on Sproutin’