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OrCom Students in a Wiki World

In my recent post about The Third Place I talked about how we, Organizational Communication students, are involved with a lot of online collaboration activities; hence, the need for WiFi. In this post, I'll be telling you how exactly we collaborated for one project.

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The above photo tells a lot about our group meeting habits. Yes we cannot meet without our gadgets. They’re practically THE STAPLE in every meeting. But there is more to what your eyes can see when you catch us in one of our third places. As Organizational Communication students, we learn a great deal in class about the different ways of collaborating online and how it is changing the way businesses and people do work. So we do not really need to look at each other straight in the eye just so we could come up with meaningful discussions. While preparing for the competition, we even talked via Google Chat and Twitter even when we were just a few meters apart. Online, there are also blogs that feature various online collaboration tools that groups can use for free. While class activities do not always require Organizational Communication students to collaborate online, we found the use of wikis particularly helpful when my team mates and I joined the 2009 PRSP Grand Prix. Here we decided to experiment with Springnote, as suggested by Alvina, since it is both free and user-friendly.

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How was it helpful? First, since we are a team of 7 people, it gets taxing to constantly email each other for updates our own research. Using online collaboration tools made the process easier for it allowed us to store all information in just one virtual container.

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Second, since the competition entailed some paper writing, we needed to ensure that each section of the paper that was assigned to us goes well with the other parts that the other members are working on. The collaborative and real time writing and editing functions of wikis allow us to cross check without any hassle.

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Third, since we can’t always expect our team to be complete during meetings and scheduled interviews, our notebook made it easier for the other team members to individually catch up without the need to bug other members on what transpired during the meeting. Of course this requires that someone in the group takes down notes in every meeting and patiently inputs it in the notebook so that the team members who weren't around can just take what happened from there.

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The calendar function of Springnote also allowed us to schedule meetings and interviews while being mindful of each others’ appointments.

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Overall, our first attempt at the Wiki World was a success albeit we encountered some password difficulties. And with more and frequent exposure to this and other kinds of online collaboration, I am sure that it won't be long before Organizational Communication students start taking the lead in incorporating this technology to the organizational processes of different companies in the Philippines. Ms. Ingrid Cudia, a BA Organizational Communication graduate, surely did well in incorporating the different ways of online collaboration in running Sieg Web Solutions. ** Team Gondo Gondo is a.k.a. Team Praxis

The Third Place

The Third Place
It's currently 10:23 in the morning and I'm making this blog at Mrs. Fields, while eating some banana bread and cheese roll alternately, sipping some Raspberry and Echinacea tea, playing Somewhere Only We Know, checking my mail and periodically tweeting. 10:23am is 2.5 hours away from my 1pm class, but why exactly am I here when I could be doing this stuff at home?

I was reading Glenn Reynolds' An Army of Davids when I got inspired to write about the OrCom students' own third place.

Reynolds cited Ray Oldenburg's idea of a third place:
1. Free or inexpensive
2. Offers food and drink
3. Accessible
4. Draws enough people to feel social
5. Fosters easy conversation

But before I move on to my own idea of a third place, let me tackle what my first and second places are.
School: This is my supposed workplace, so to speak. But since we don't have our own classrooms in the University, I can't work there comfortably. The library (if you may call it a place to study/work) isn't very conducive after all. In my opinion, the criteria for a place to be considered conducive is different now. But our libraries, sad to say, are stuck with their own definitions from the past.
Home: I don't know if it's the television, my bed, or my parents, but really I can't seem to accomplish anything when I'm at home. As they say, work and life (home) can't mix. Need I say more? 

So I look for another place to do work; hence, the third place.

My idea of a Third Place, as an OrCom student, has a lot in similarity with that of Oldenburg's. But I will have to add more elements to make it fit.
1. Free WiFi
As a Net Gen-er, it is not impossible for me to hang out with my friends and class mates while working. All I need is White Winona (my 1005HA) and a WiFi connection and I'm all set. We collaborate (more about this on my next entry) online and that's why it topped my list.

Places with free WiFi: select areas within UP Manila CAS (DAC, CAS lib, RH 303, GAB 308), Mrs. Fields UN, MoMo, McDo UN, Starbucks Midtown, Baker's Passion, other food places in Midtown, White Berry (Bellagio Square) To get connected to the UPM WiFi, open the proxy settings (from your browser's internet options) and do the following:
  • Change address to proxy.upm.edu.ph
  • Change port to 3128
  • Check the box that says "Use a proxy server for your LAN"

2. Sockets

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We are not anymore in a generation where the only place you can work with those doc files at is at home, with that giant computer mounted on the wall next to the socket. Productivity and connectivity tools are way smaller now. And it follows that you can work at any place, provided it has a power supply. Going back, since I can't always expect all my group mates/friends own a net book with a good battery life (ie. enough to last an average 3 hour meeting), the absence or presence of sockets play a huge role when we choose a place to stay at.

Places with free sockets: KopiRoti (Adriatico), Starbucks UN, Mrs. Fields UN, MoMo, Starbucks Midtown, Burger King, White Berry (Bellagio Square), Kido Manga

3. Great ambiance

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Yes we are not easily contented. For a place to enter our list, it must have, at least, good seats, if not couches. Why is that so? At the very least, we spend 3 hours for a group meeting, add subtract an hour and a half for tweeting, chika, and other distractions that cannot be helped. That's why comfy chairs matter a lot to us. You can't expect us to conduct our meetings al fresco because we will melt, yes literally. Also, we want our places to have just the right amount of people = noise. A cramped place is a NO-NO!

Places with good-great ambiance: Mrs. Fields UN, Starbucks UN, KopiRoti (Adriatico), White Berry (Bellagio Square)

4. Reasonably priced drinks and food

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We love to eat. And we love to do it while working. But we also have our attempts at frugality, which is why you won't find us in places that sell a single serving dish for 200, unless the deal is really good (like in Mrs. Fields UN). If  I haven't made it clear, we can actually stay in a coffee shop forever (and by forever I mean the entire day). But the good thing is we are not the type who are gutsy to the point of staying without buying anything. We do buy, even impulsively at times. That's why reasonably priced drinks and food will totally do the trick. *We may have different standards on what is reasonably priced or not. For that, I shall not list anything here.

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5. Nice, accommodating staff

This need not be explicitly sought for. It's kinda more of a bonus, rather than a requirement. But this is one reason why my friends and I haven't been much to one bread place in Midtown--when the staff make you feel that you are being observed and they just want you to leave after making your purchase, you wouldn't wanna return in that place anymore, right?

* Not listing specific restaurants/places here too.

So those are my third places. What's yours?