It was in 1999 that I first bought my own pc with internet access that I could use from home. Although I worked for one of the largest organisations in the UK we did not have internet at work, just a very slow local area network.  I immediately saw the potential of the 'web' even though at the time (and to some extent still now) it was rather like the wild west.  Spamming, porn, viruses were rife and you needed to be reasonably on the ball to avoid these 'villains'. 

Within a couple of weeks I built my first website and then I downloaded a free demo tool, webposition gold, which I used to optimise the website.  Within another 2 weeks it was number one on the search engine (Alta Vista).  The website was about how to sell a house quickly and the search phrase was 'difficult selling house'.  The point was that I was not a programmer and that is was easy and fast to do, yet companies were (and still are!) charging thousands to do the same thing.

A few months later I viewed a demonstration of some new 'multimedia' elearning.  It was a 45 minute induction package for all new arrivals to one of the other units in my organisation.  As head of training for my unit (over 3000 personnel) my department was responsible for providing induction training and I quickly saw the potential to train new arrivals almost on day one rather than waiting weeks for the face-to-face new arrivals briefs.  I approached our head of personnel with a request for funding which was £30K plus 20% per year maintenance. This would probably be nearer £60K at today's prices.  Not surprisingly, I was told that no spare funds were available, however, undeterred, I ventured along another route:... Do-It-Yourself.  At the time Authorware was a relatively easy authoring tool to learn and myself with 2 colleagues attended a 2 week Authorware course which cost us £500 each.  During the course we built an induction package ourselves using the expert tutor to guide us and occasional advice from our own graphic artists employed at our unit. After another 2 weeks of testing and evaluation, the induction package was launched and used successfully for all new arrivals.  The quality of the product was considered on a par with the one produced by the commercial company.  So, instead of paying £30K upfront and £6K per year for updates we had paid far less and would have future control of updates ourselves. Moreover, we now had the skills and know-how to develop more elearning whenever we wished.

Since 1999, I continued to progress through my organisation, completing an MSc in Advanced Information Systems in 2003 as well as gaining accreditation as a British Computer Society (BCS) Systems Analyst and Designer and IS Project Manager.  After this I lectured at Cranfield University for 3 years whilst also managing numerous Information Systems Projects for my organisation: most, but not all, involving training.  Since 2007, I have run a Research and Development team which provides advice and consultancy on Technology Based Training to the whole of my organisation.  During this period I have built a robust network of like-minded people who see the potential of web based innovations and like me are willing to offer their services to a wider audience. We are prepared to blow the whistle on companies who are still trying to sell proprietary software with highly inflated license fees.

Over the last few years there have been many exciting innovations which will enable easy utilisation of web based technologies.  Websites have been revolutionised by Content Management Systems (CMS) which are easy to set up and allow anyone with basic pc skills to add content to a website.  This site is an example of a free CMS - Joomla.  Authoring and developing eLearning is now as easy as PowerPoint - in fact some tools are probably even easier than PowerPoint to learn and use.  These tools can also be very cheap or even free.  Hosting your elearning on the web is now easy and cheap too with open-source software such as moodle.  This site contains much more information on all these different types of web tools.  

Using the web to meet your organisations communications and training needs is no longer in the realm of proprietary and expensive software development companies.  If you choose to work with Global TechWorld we will promise to be totally open with you about how we will develop your web-based solutions and which tools we will be using.  We will be more than happy to teach you how to do this yourselves and we will not require any payment until you have accepted agreed products or services.  If you want anything slighlty out of the ordinary, then we will be particularly interested as we are keen to stay at the sharp end of innovation.  Above all, we pride ourselves in our integrity to provide a service that exceeds expectations.  Feel free to contact me using the Contact Us page on this website.

Kevin Parker

Director Global TechWorld

Web innovations with integrity