October 2008

We should be out enjoying the nice weather today (it may be one of our last up here in Winnipeg!) but instead we spent today doing a bunch of bug fixing. These include several improvements for instructors, people management, messaging pending users, a fix for Firefox 2 users in the lounge, and some minor UI tweaks too.

Now to enjoy the remaining sunshine! :)

This post is our contribution to Blog Action Day, which brings together thousands of bloggers to write about one topic for a single day. This year's topic is poverty.

A friend of mine, Ilan Shwartz, took a trip to South Africa a few years ago to volunteer at a place called the Hillcrest AIDS Centre. Hillcrest provides medical services, education/awareness, emergency food parcels, sustainable agricultural development, and income generation programs for people in an area where the unemployment rate and the rate of HIV/AIDS infections are both over 40% of the population. The number of people there infected by HIV grows by over 500,000 every year. That number is almost the population of Winnipeg (the hometown of Dojo Learning).

When Ilan came back to Winnipeg, he brought with him a few dozen small beaded pins called "little travellers" which were sold at Hillcrest as souvenirs, as part of their income generation program. When people here started expressing a desire to have one of the little travellers for themselves, Ilan started selling the pins here like they were back at Hillcrest.

Things started to pick up quickly, and so Ilan organized a group of volunteers under the name "Little Travellers" (originally the "Simunye Initiative") to promote the pins at local events and find local stores to carry them. Fast forwarding to present, the Little Travellers are now in cities across Canada, and have started spreading into the US and as far as South Korea. To date, the Little Travellers HIV/AIDS Initiative has sold over 30,000 pins, raised over $150,000, and have been endorsed by Stephen Lewis, the former U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Each doll is hand-made by women affected by HIV/AIDS, and 100% of the proceeds go to help fight HIV/AIDS and to provide an income source to the families of those who are affected. In addition to all of the  services provided by Hillcrest, the sale of Little Travellers provides an income to more than 100 families affected by HIV/AIDS in one of the most impoverished areas of South Africa.

Please take a moment to check out the Little Travellers website, read the stories of some of the crafters who make the little travellers, and buy a few for your friends and family. At only $5 each, a little goes a long way.

"By making these dolls, families have been fed, lights have been turned on, little children have gone to school, water has poured out taps... but most of all, hope has been restored."
– Paula Thompson, Woza Moya income-generation project, Hillcrest AIDS Centre

We've been hard at work this summer and have just launched a major update to Dojo Learning.  Take a look!

New features:

Developer API
This allows other developers to make use of our online learning application in unique and custom ways.  The API has many functions that can be used in almost unlimited ways to customize your Dojo Learning experience.

Facebook Application
We have added a Facebook application that allows you to share which lessons you are taking and which ones you are instructing and connect with other Dojo Learning users on Facebook.  Great if you are selling your training or using Facebook in your online classroom.

Profile Pages
Upload your photo and connect with other learners using your profile page.  Learners are automatically connected to each other when they subscribe or when they are invited into a lesson.

Widget Tool
We have developed a Widget tool that let you embed your lessons into your own blog or website. You can use the Widget to promote your lessons while keeping your already branded webpage.

Promote Your Lesson
Use your address book from Gmail, Outlook, Plaxo, AOL, Yahoo! or use a CSV file to promote your lesson to all your contacts or submit your lesson to over 20 social media sites.

Updates:

Journal
The Journal tool has been improved.  Navigation is easier, responses are easier to read and profile pictures are connected to each response.

Improved Landing Page
When logging on to Dojo Learning, you are presented with a new, more informative landing page that quickly directs you to the lessons you're taking or instructing, and provides you with a quick link to add a new lesson to your account.

Chat Tool
The chat tool was taking too much screen real estate, so we tucked it away in a side tab.  When a fellow learner or instructor starts a chat, an indicator will let you know that a chat has started.  You can disable the indicator tool if you want to work in private.

We are very exited about these changes and are already working on Dojo Learning version 2.0.  We will strive to make Dojo Learning the most engaging learning application on the net.  Enjoy the upgrade.