From Phoenix, Arizona, theCUBE at Catalyst Conference. Here's your host, Jeff Frick. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We are on the ground at Phoenix, Arizona at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference, a great little conference, about 400 people. It's going to be 600 next year, I think back in the barriots or fourth year. We're really coming down and seeing what's going on. It seems to be a hotbed of women in tech issues here at Phoenix. We're here two years ago for our First Grace Hopper Conference. And so we're excited to come down and get a feel. And our next guest, Laura Williams, welcome. Thank you. So you are, as we said off camera, you're the lone kind of government representative. You're the E-Diplomacy Officer at the U.S. Department of State. Right. So first off, what is E-Diplomacy? E-Diplomacy was founded by Secretary of State Colin Powell. I actually started on the same day as he did at the State Department. We took different cars to work that day, but I was a new hire when he was coming on as Secretary of State, and he very quickly identified that State Department needed a tech upgrade. But he also combined that with a culture upgrade. He said, you know, it's not just about needing new technology, but it's needing new technology that allows us to collaborate. And he sort of blew people's minds when he said, you know, it's not about need to know anymore, it's about need to share. State Department still is a very bureaucratic, you know, sort of hierarchical culture. So this initially didn't rest so well. People said, there's no way, you know, the first thing that E-Diplomacy did was to bring in a wiki into the internal part of the State Department's network. And I said, well, that'll never work. We're a clearance culture and all of this stuff. We have 22,000 Diplopedia articles, you know, running now. So it did work. We brought blogs into the department in order to tell stories across bureaucratic and geographical divides. I mean, if you think of the State Department, there's, we're working in 190 countries and we have 275 offices spread throughout those countries. So we needed collaboration. We needed technology like this. So that's really interesting coming from Colin Powell, you know, the head of the Joint Chiefs, right, just got off a war going into the State Department, which still today there's issues on Hillary's emails and this and that. It is a culture of need to know. So how did that barrier break down? Did it have like the security overlay on the wiki? Did everything kind of happen outside or at some kind of grade level in terms of clearance so that it could kind of spread? That's really an interesting story. Two things. First of all, when Colin Powell came to the State Department, most people didn't even have the internet on their desktop. It's probably. This is in 2001. Probably a security, was it a security thing? Well, that's what everybody said. That's what everybody said, right? Everybody said, we can't do that, it's not secure. Well, Colin Powell, right, the guy who knows all about security also happened to be on the board of AOL, right? And so he knew technology and he knew that you could make it secure. It's not like the Department of Defense didn't have access to the internet. He said, yeah, you gotta make it secure. So we're talking about hardening the Department's internal network and adding access to it, but of course adding a layer of security on top of it. So it took that kind of leadership, that personality to come in and say, oh yes, we will do this and you all need to figure out how to do it but we will do this. That's nothing compared to the cultural change though, right? The cultural change is the hardest. So was there a couple of people that just were wildly successful? I mean, again, it's a complete mind shift. I think that we haven't been totally successful even all these years later, 15 years later. There are definitely people that do not contribute to Diplopedia. There are people that definitely believe that information is power and they would rather share less than more. But if you look at the world around you today and State Department does a lot of that, right? It's our job to interact with people. Even that business of diplomacy has changed. It is no longer the Secretary of State meeting with the foreign minister of another country. Well, of course that happens and treaties are made but all of us now are expected to perform diplomacy. It's people to people diplomacy, not just envoy to envoy. And how do we do that? How do we do that on a massive scale? Of course, technology is a big part of that. Well, how do you do it with all the people that you're not interacting with at work? I mean, that's what we see over and over as a consumerization of IT, right? The expected behavior of things that work to behave like they are when I'm not working. I wonder if some of the younger people have come in to the government like, what? Of course, why don't you have these things? It's an awesome source of friction. Can I say that?  There is a constant worry about security, a constant worry about being able to manage a diverse tool set. But if you don't provide the technology that your organization needs, you're gonna create even bigger security problems.  People are gonna start using their personal Gmail accounts instead of their state.gov accounts. So we need to find ways to bring collaborative technology and technology that we use every day in our personal lives inside the safety of our network so that people have the kind of tools they need to do their jobs. That's great. We interviewed Michelle Kay Lee, who's the Undersecretary of Commerce at the USPTO office. She came from Google. So again, another one of these kind of moves from the tech world into the government. But let's shift gears a little bit. Why are you here? What were you talking about here at this conference? Right. So first of all, I've learned so much from being at this conference. I was a little bit unsure when Adriana, the CEO of Girls in Tech invited me to talk. As you mentioned at the outset, I'm the only guppy here. So I thought like, how is my story going to really resonate with the women that are present? And I spoke today, yesterday, story after story, presenter after presenter. I felt more and more confident. I said, oh my goodness, the challenges are the same in private sector. They're the same if you're at a startup or a big fancy company like Intel or IBM. A lot of the stories are the same if you're in government. So I'm just gonna be authentic and tell my story. So we did two things. We talked about IT innovation in government at the federal level and how President Obama has invited West Coast high-speed, low-drag people to come help us fix our IT systems. But then I talked about my story. I had a degree in international relations, but moved out of that field in the mid-90s when it seemed like everybody was doing something with tech. It was an uncomfortable move at first because I was really wedded to, well, I've studied international relations. I should be in this business. But I had one of those post-collegiate bubble bursting experiences where I was working at USAID and I thought, I don't know, this is the theory that I learned in school doesn't seem to be playing out in the field. And I shared an office with the IT guy, right? He was so annoying, you know? But, right, you know? So a few months later he called me up. He said, hey, you're still thinking about a career change, right? Three years out of college, we have careers, right? So I said, yeah, actually I am. And he said, well, I'm in a different embassy every month. We're unplugging the old computer system, putting a new one in and we need you. And I said, I don't know anything about tech. And he said, but you know about the business. You've studied international relations.  We need somebody who can relate to people, who can sit at a meeting with the ambassador and explain to him what the importance, the importance of this tech rollout and explain it in plain language, not in dorky tech talk. And then we'll teach you the dorky tech talk after hours. I ended up really liking it. I liked that if there was a problem I could fix it. And that has led to a career in the State Department where I'm certainly in between the org chart. The hardcore zero and one techies, they don't consider me a techie. The international relation majors that are doing the business of diplomacy, they're like, well, you're not one of us either. But I've made a sweet spot out of being in between the org chart. And it's really worked out for me. It's such a great story on so many levels. Because you are still an international relation. Yes, very much so. You work in the State Department. You don't get much more international relations than that. But you found your own niche and I think a really important lesson for people considering a career in techies. You don't necessarily have to be a hardcore techie. You don't have to know coding to get a job and get paid to play in this really fun and exciting and rapidly moving world. Yeah, that's true. There have been a lot of stories here over the past couple days about that. There's a lot of people in that room that do not have a degree in engineering or computer science. And in fact, I got to a place in my career where I stopped being shy about being that person who spoke both tech and international relations and said, in the State Department you change your assignment every couple of years so you're constantly sort of lobbying or bidding for a new job. And I went to apply for a job in the Operations Center. That's the 24-7 nerve center of the State Department where we alert and brief the Secretary of State and other officials on events around the world.  But by this point in my career, I said, that's right. And that is exactly why I'm the best person for this job because I have this blend of skills that's gonna take this place to the next level. So... And you got the job. I got the job and we changed the way, you know, the department receives, you know, alerts and briefs about events that are happening all around the world. Awesome. Well, congratulations. Great story and really great inspiration for people looking for a good story. So I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your time representing the government, representing the State Department here at the conference. And thanks for stopping by theCUBE. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. All right, Laura Williams. I'm Jeff Frick. You're watching theCUBE. We are at the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Thanks for watching.


Kelsey Rothaus and this is Behind the Hype with CalTV Sports. I'm here in Haas Pavilion with starting forward of our men's basketball team, Ivan Rabb. Ivan, thank you so much for being on the show. First of all, huge congratulations for the AP pre-season All-American honor. You received the second most votes. You're the only underclassman and you're only the second player from Cal to get it since Jason Kidd, 1993. You were not even born yet. Telling me things I didn't even know. There you go. I mean, you've received so many basketball accolades, but when you first heard about this one, what was your reaction? Well, it was definitely exciting. I mean, I know there's a ton of players who've gotten this award, but at the end of the day, it's still a pre-season award and I still have to go out and prove it not only to them, but to my teammates and to my coaches that I can lead the team to win. And going into the season, you lost a couple key guys to graduation. Jaylen Brown, of course, is drafted to the Celtics, but you have so many strong new additions and four returners. How would you compare the dynamic of this year's team to last year's team? This year, I would say that we brought in a lot of quick guards. We have three guards that just came in this year who all play the fantastic players in transition. They all shoot and scored a ball, period. They all play pretty great, pretty good defense, and at the end of the day, they just want to be part of a good team, and I think that we're building something special here. And you're only a sophomore, but do you feel like you've started to take on a little bit of a leadership role with this group of guys? Yeah, definitely. Starting in the summertime, people were looking to me to lead drills and just be vocal on the basketball court and even off the court in the locker room. I think all of those things add up to being a great leader. And the fact that we've been here today and that we're talking about your sophomore season, it's a big deal.  You're going to enter the draft. You're projected to go as high as six.  What went into that decision? To be honest, I felt like I had some unfinished business here. And besides that, I love the campus. I've taken a lot of great classes. I've met a lot of great people, and I'm just building more and more relationships every day. So there was a lot of important people here that I didn't want to leave yet. And what's wrong with another year at college? Absolutely. Nothing's wrong with another year at college. On behalf of all Cal students, we're very thankful. Now, in honor of you staying in Berkeley for another year, we're going to have a little power round of questions here. So just answer quickly. You know, got to talk about your favorites in Berkeley. So hard one, first one. Favorite food place in Berkeley. Okay, my favorite food definitely is Tavoli's right now. Oh, good choice. Tavoli's, yeah, I love it. Favorite class you've taken so far? Favorite class? Black representation of black people in reality TV. Very interesting. It was a class I'm taking over summer. It was amazing. Colin Kaepernick was in that class along with a lot of other people who just made a huge impact. So it was great. Go Bears, that's awesome. Favorite thing to do in Berkeley besides playing basketball? Yeah, we don't have a lot of free time. But when I do, I try to spend it just relaxing with friends or going to movies. I love going to movies. I love popcorn. Love popcorn. Best Conto Martin quote or mannerism? Sure, there's a lot to choose from there. Yeah. Wow. The craziest thing or the funniest thing that he says is just he loves to say when the lights come on, don't get afraid. Like he doesn't exactly say that, but he definitely says don't start choking. Don't get scared when the lights come on when it's time to have a serious game. Good message. Good message. And lastly, if you can pick one, do you have a favorite memory in House Pavilion so far? I would say the last game against SE when we finished up the 18-year-old season. That was a great game. Also against Oregon last year when we came out just scoring the ball just rapidly to begin the game. So those are the two probably my favorite games. How do you feel about your chances of going undefeated at home again this season? You can never call it. I think that was in the story theme. One game at a time, definitely. But that's definitely our goal. I mean, why not try to win every year? Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for being on the show Ivan. Good luck the rest of the season.


Going on everyone Sam here late with late in sports cards. I've been 23 leave art of sport hobby 10 box case number 3 random hit style Way this will work as I have all of our 40 participants In the random.org Window we're gonna do the break show all the hits off once all the hits have been typed in Kyle's gonna type them in Copy them over into this empty window. We'll roll the dice say it's eight times names will go eight times hits I'll go eight times copy them over whatever hits next your name is the hit you'll get so good luck here everybody Let's do it It's all truly balanced That was poor thing this is fall with the double double. All right. Good luck everybody. The win was poor thing is this fault So you're kidding. Yeah, there you go three spots Need the kidney and you got sports cards. I think it's gonna be quite 10k remorse. I'm gonna be a little bit less So that's kind of dope start off. We've got a Cody Rhodes One of six looks like the used robe relic Cody Rose Sir the American nightmare We've got a dip tick of Erling Holland. Oh, that's a booklet Auto booklet. I'm not gonna open it whoever gets it in chat. I guess we can open it, but I'm gonna keep it sealed for now I don't know the numbering that is nasty though. That is gonna be really dope Fire. Yeah, that's that's nasty We've got a dual canvas combos name our junior and Vinny jr. 21 of 35 game use material and then a Jesus box a little bigger. That'd be dope one of five is gonna be a Tim Reigns auto Tim Reigns with the The pinwheel expose hat on there. I love it. That's a good luck to everybody on that one of five Timmy Reigns All right box dos Starting off nice Julian Alvarez that is gonna be three of five on the purple That's kind of gross dude Julian Alvarez and it's kind of didn't see a Pacers David.  Come on Vaughan we've got That is Bartolo Cologne two of three on the four colored game use patch auto. Let's go dude we've got a Octin of Holland in Boppe, Vinny jr. Phil Foden Marcus Rassford Rassford Karim Benzema Kevin De Bruyne and Eduardo Comma Vinga number 23 of 35 That's sick dude eight-way soccer patches To color on De Bruyne technically to color on on in Boppe as well Okay, thank you. Thank you. Shady. Shady. Just drop the link to the dip titch or dip tick I'll say that to be honest. I'm not 5 of 20 drew breeze on the auto good stuff there Saints QB I see a lot of breeze stuff. So that's always good One of my favorite cards. I own I own a 2016 flawless on card of In case drew breeze and I won in a raz $7 It's like all right work. All right. Yeah, actually, that's probably a good idea shady here I'm gonna drop the link to the Holland dip titch dip tick whatever just so you can see what it looks like So there you go. Thank you shady on which got that for us. We want to take a look at what that looks like It is now in chat. You've got a that's nice work of art game use jerseys of Steph Curry 4 of 12 Take that for sure. Nice stuff there whoever gets that Stefan Curry Next up is an auto that is of Luca Modric 18 of 25 is more rich or Modric. Yes, there we go. You're right look at Modric or Modric. However you want to say it The dip tick is is nasty. That's awesome. I have to open and look at it after this break We got the exhibit of Erling Holland that is six of seven Six of seven two color on the bottom there one colors all the way around Erling Holland But one spot in one cheese, dude That is a dual auto of Erling Holland and Julian Alvarez 10 of 12 a lot of Holland man Modric, okay. Thank you. Bolly Modric Erling Holland who in Alvarez damn dude sweat two autos of Holland already in three boxes This stuff's good, man This stuff is good. It really is a Holland case, man Um, that's kind of nasty again guy. You do not see a lot of work of art number nine of 35 That's Scotty Pippin some game use bowls jerseys there Scotty Pippin That is an auto of damn. That's disgusting 17 of 35 Dwight Gooden That's so nasty Dwight Gooden on the auto I Don't think so. Did you read that somewhere? Remar's I don't believe so That is the exhibit five of 25 Chris Weber His next one's crazy, man crazy That is a dual Jersey auto two of four Steph Curry and Kevin Durant One color two color on the Durant patch from the Thunder days.  So cool, dude KD Curry dual auto and This is a good case, dude Yeah, you literally have no idea what's gonna come out of this. Wow. Holy hell, man diptych of Barry Sanders and then how about right next to the diptych of Joe Montana. Oh my god, man Barry Sanders one hit and Joe Montana the other hit again auto booklets Good lord, man. This is awesome. This is awesome. This one's dope, dude The exhibit combos 13 of 30 David Robinson Patrick Ewing Holy cow, man. That's awesome. Yeah, Admiral and Patrick Ewing It's like a part in the wrong case and your bucket I'm gonna drop you guys the link to the diptychs as well. Thank you again. Shady There's a look at the Barry Right there and Then this one's dope too if you're a wrestling fan man Sasha Banks 25 and 35 on the auto so cool as well Good lord, man. We're only halfway through the case here, too Sasha Banks and we got more of these on the site to more of these listed for breaks 90 bucks a spot and Then also the Montana. Thank you again. Shady and There is the look at the Montana as well.  That is gonna be a stand-usual and Willie Mays. That's cool, man Willie Mays stand-usual numbered again five of Five, I believe you have five of five on the purple. It's hard to see but You can see it there. It's kind of sick. We've got a Michael Strayhan numbered one of two on the action autos This one's really freaking cool, man eight-way relic of Kobe Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowisky, Paul Gasol, Tracy McGrady, D Wade, Steve Natch, and Alan Iverson Number 12 of 15 So cool, man. The pow looks like it's from the the Grizzlies days. Everybody else looks T-Mac looks like probably magic Everybody else looks pretty dead on What do you mean Adam? Cardinals for what? any cardinal ones and then another one Seven of nine Kevin Durant on the auto say, oh, there's more in stock Yeah, this stuff is awesome, man. Yeah, we get cardinal stuff all the time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, stuff's good, man Yeah, Katie doesn't really sign for pity anymore either I remember the last time there's a Katie automating in 2019-2018 around there price, man dip tick Steph Curry Another one man the golf in here Trying to think is anybody a leaf guy for a couple golf there might be there definitely might be St. Bernhard longer a minute ago, but yeah, there was I pulled there was a Jack Nicklaus relic out of something out of a leaf recently as well We've got a Triple of John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Andy Murray, and Novak Djokovic. That's a Kyle card right there, man 18 up 35 Leave that day. It's either 18 or 10. I can't really tell it might be 10. I think it's 10 I think it's 10 at 35 my bed Dustin Johnson. Thank you Jumbo and any of the baseball breaks I would say Adam any of the baseball breaks. You can get some this is dope man triple Jersey You know messy Manu Ginobli Diego Maradona the artesian artesian legends 32 at 35 That's sick man messy Ginobli in Maradona. Wow That's freaking awesome The map of the stars that that's sick man, and then numbered two of 15 Sean Kemp Sean Kemp on the auto as well. Okay, none for the curry yet. Thanks for looking though. Shady. Appreciate that Have your I should say Yeah, right. Well, there's one.  It's gonna be a quad of Griffey McGuire Frank Thomas and Barry Bonds numbered at 9 of 15 9 of 15 other awesome one man Also to answer your question. Yes Tyler you do get one card per per break here and then a dual auto and dual bat of Robin yount and Paul Molliter one of four Is yount Dracula and Paul Molliter game use Jersey game use bat one of four on the arts of Arts and graphs. I like that Really is Tyler. It's kind of wild actually all right. We've got that is yep. There you go some golf Dustin Johnson 7 of 12 looks like glove and Baseball breaks Adam baseball breaks got a Mike trout two of nine game use jerseys the exhibit Two of nine on the trout. We've got this one's dope Sue Bird on the auto that is 23 at 35 That's not sick man, too. Oh, thank you. I didn't see that That is the Tyree kill dipstick right there as well and then do a lot of Joe Montana Magic Johnson four of eight on the pornography Joe Montana and Magic Johnson Four of eight. Let's go another dip-tick Rick flair Hell yeah, man another one a lot of people walking away with one of these Rick flair on the dip-tick that's in the Case still Here I'll drop you the link to the break schedule drop you the brink Link to the break schedule. There you go. Mr. TV. You spy on the website. Yeah, we have a website exactly exactly That is gonna be a Derek Jeter and Mariana Rivera two of two on the dual jersey. That's freaking awesome, too This one's really sick It's gonna be three color and one color or two color no three color three color two of three Neymar, Jr. Patch auto Good god, man. Darwin Nunez 29 of 35 on the auto as well right empty empty. I'll drop you guys. Thank you shady picked up the Rick flair dip-tick as well I'll drop you guys that link in YouTube. There you go All right Thank you Jason with a art of sport spot. Appreciate you buddy Uh Yep, we've got some we got one of these tomorrow Billy one of these tomorrow It's like the third fourth to last break or third to last break of the night hit sheet. All right bring it back over here We've got again our 40 participants and our 40 hits Now typed in with like a description of all of them Cody roads up top down to the Darwin Nunez on the bottom go ahead and roll the dice and random each list four times one two three and four Ronnie each down to Brian are Four times on your squads one two three and four Erling Holland Alvarez dual auto to 12 down to the Steph Curry dip tick I do apologize if I'm saying dip tick bronze I have no idea how to say no no giveaways or anything you have to buy them Ronnie each with the Erling Holland Alvarez dual auto David G with the Argentina triple relic messy Maradona Genoblee Christopher C Julian Alvarez auto Daniel you Erling Holland exhibit Jersey mark D with the Montana Magic dual auto Adam M. Sean Kemp auto to 15 Richard R. Erling Holland dip tick auto booklet Chiakai L with the name R. Vinnie dual relic Mark D with the tennis Renaissance quad relic Robert are with the Sasha banks to 35 order number 275 907 Barry Sanders dip tick book Hano be Bartolo Cologne to a three-patch auto Ryan and with the Michael Stray hand auto Edward E with the Joe Montana dip tick auto book nice one there, buddy Brandon O with the Drew Brees auto Carol G Mike trout Jersey Ronnie H. Dwight good in auto and the young monitor dual Relic auto to four Peter M with the Neymar work of art relic to 35 order number 275 904 with the Ric Flair dip tick Matt B with the Tim Reigns auto to five Regis M the Cody Rhodes relic Dave S eight-way basketball relic to 15 Long J with the Luca, Modric auto to 25 Clay T. Musial Maze canvas That is Robert B. Robinson Ewing exhibit dual relic Ronnie H with the Pippin work of art Tai G Jeter Rivera dual Jersey Hano B with the Kevin Durant auto Charlie P eight-way soccer relic Keith G Steph Curry work of art Jersey four of 12 Tobias Chris Weber Jersey Vincent B with the Tyree kill dip tick That is Patrick M. Neymar junior patch auto two of three Brian G with the baseball Renaissance number dead. Yeah, they're not numbered I would say Nam Q L with the Curry Durant Dual auto relic to four nice one there name Q Vincent B. Dustin Johnson work of art She a guy with the Sue bird auto leeway H Darwin Nunez Brian R with the Steph Curry dip tick book So thank you guys again for the Phil I'll get these copied over the website and the video upload appreciate you


Welcome to the Highline College CTC Link How-To Videos series. In this session, we'll show you how to go to the CTC Link mobile web view on your desktop and search for courses. First, go to a web browser and type in mobile.highline.edu. From here, click on the tile CTC Link Login. Then enter your CTC Link ID and password. You are now on the dashboard. From here, move to the left navigation panel and scroll down and click on Class Search. You are now on the Class Search webpage. From here, you can enter your search options. Select the term, the subject, the instruction mode, and if you know it, the class number, which is the CTC Link section class number, course attributes, and additional search options, allowing you to select the time and the days that you would like to take the course. Select Campus and Locations if you have a preference, and then click on the Search button. CTC Link has located three courses that match your search options. To see detailed information about each course, click on the side arrow. From this page, you can scroll down, read class details, textbook materials, and class availability. You can also add this class to your planner, add this class to your cart, or buy books. When you are finished, click on the side arrow that you see at the top, and it will take you back to your Class Search page. Congratulations! You have just searched for courses using the CTC Link mobile web view on your desktop.


Hi everybody and welcome to our channel. Today I wanted to make a video on spousal sponsorships. I haven't done one in a very long time and I noticed that the videos I do on spousal sponsorship are always the most popular with the most views and questions and also a lot of the inquiries we get at the office about spousal sponsorship and we do handle a lot of spousal sponsorships at the office. So this video is just to talk about a little bit of the changes that has happened since I made the last videos and what's kind of currently happening with processing of these applications. So one major change that has happened is that the requirements for mandatory relationship documents have changed. So for example now if you submit an application whether it's an overseas or an inland, depending on your situation if you're married, if you're common law, this is your first marriage, if you have children or not and if you are living together or not you need to demonstrate certain that you have certain key documentations. For example it might be mandatory to show that you have one or two or three of certain documentations. For example it could be joint bank accounts, joint utility bills, it could be official government documentation that you're getting at the same address such as Notice of Assessment. You might also need to provide joint ownership or joint lease agreement and if you don't have those then you might be able to supplement with reference letters or photos. Now sometimes it's difficult to get these documents because for example we have some clients that have been in a relationship for a very long time, they live together but they don't have joint utilities, they don't have joint bank accounts because they just never thought of doing that because there was never a need for it. So in those cases if you're really unable to have those documents and that's something that you really don't want to do you don't want to have a joint bank account and that's okay as a couple you can choose to do what you want. You might never want to have a joint bank account it doesn't mean that you're not a real relationship it's just a decision as a couple that you've taken then what we could do is we write in our legal submission letter which is our cover letter the reason why you don't have some of the documentation that is allowed, it is indicated in the document checklist that if you're unable to provide certain documents to provide an explanation obviously we try our best not to do that because we don't we never want to give an opportunity to immigration to scrutinize your application or refuse your application or delay your application we really try to put everything that they want so that it just fast fast processing smooth processing but if you're really really unable to get certain documents you just don't have them at all then of course we provide an explanation and we have done that in a lot of our application and it's usually been pretty okay so no problem there. Another big change for spousal sponsorship is the processing time whereas before there was more files which were processed like a year a year and a half it was always a little bit more than a year immigration made this policy where they really wanted to process all applications within 12 months they posted on their website and it's also currently posted and I find that they're actually are meeting these timelines which is fantastic we have a lot of our applications that are processed I would say on average in our office about six to eight months uh sometimes 10 months but more like six to eight months and sometimes we're even very lucky like for example today we had a file get finalized in like four months which is really fantastic but I would never say if we do a consultation that all your files and we can do this we're going to get it in four months I always still tell our clients it's about a year it's about six months to 12 months but it could always say it could even be 14 months 15 months or if we're lucky it could be five months or six months this has remained the same it always depends on the officer it always depends on the backlog and the processing time it's really a question of how many employees are working at an immigration at immigration and how often are they processing files it's not a question of your file is lost or there's something wrong with your file or it's going to be refused it's just processing times vary and they vary from country to country so that advice always stays the same we hope for the best but we're prepared for the worst so when we file an application we make sure it's perfect we have a good cover letter a good submission letter the forms are perfect we reviewed everything to make sure that there's no gaps there's no signature missing important information is there there's no misrepresentation we make sure that the supporting documents are complete that the document checklist is complete we always send our application with FedEx to make sure it gets there on time that we have a tracking number we always make sure that when we get the correspondence we reply to it as soon as possible that we're on top of everything that if we don't we're not sure of something we have our you know myself or my staff we call the call center and follow up so if you do all of these things hopefully it will be as smooth and as fast as possible but having said that sometimes you could do everything perfectly and it could even be still longer so ultimately the important thing is that your application is approved yes it's important that your application gets approved fast but we want an approval we don't want a refusal and we don't want complications so keep that in mind if you're considering filing for as follow sponsorship application other changes besides that I think that's that's more or less the biggest change that happened the last little while since I made the videos my recommendations remain the same that if you have a complex case make sure that you speak to an immigration lawyer make sure that you you know anything about criminality previous refusals previous relationship previous sponsorship you explain everything to your lawyer if you have a straightforward file you can file by yourself there's a lot of information out there on on IRCC on various blogs and websites on our website on my youtube channel I give a lot of free information on how to file it yourself and there's a lot of people that do file it themselves and there's no problem but if you are somebody that you don't like paperwork and you get overwhelmed spousal sponsorship can be very overwhelming I would recommend that you hire a law firm to help you out a legal expert because legal experts in immigration this is what we do day in and day out we know exactly what we have to do and if we don't know what we have to do then we have the tools to research with our colleagues we ask questions and figure it out we call immigration because the spousal sponsorship is a very important process it could be very stressful if you're sponsoring your partner especially if your partner is not with you in Canada and is abroad you might be separate for a long time and if you have children it's even more complicated so you want to make sure that when you embark in this journey you have everything prepared in your favor so that if anything unexpected happens you have the tools to deal with it if you have any questions about spousal sponsorship you can send us an email contact us and we'd be happy to help you with that application thank you


In this video, we'll consider some of the issues that we should keep in mind while producing our videos, regarding the format of instructional videos. And we'll look at some of the things that research shows works best. Now how do we know what works when it comes to instructional videos? Well first, there is research out there, research, most of it has been done on MOOCs, which is the massive online courses built around videos. We can just simply look at the view numbers and how popular are certain types of videos, which ones are the videos that people are willing to spend time on, and then also look at what sorts of videos people buy, what are the kinds of things people will pay their own money for to learn from. And of course, we should also engage with the personal experiences and reflect on what works for us and then see how we can best integrate that into our work as video producers. Now there are different types of video formats. There's a talking hands-for-band, which is what you're seeing right now, there's screencasts, animations, documentary styles, lecture recordings. And I don't want to go through those aspects here right now, but I have prepared a sampler that is available on the Canvas course that this video is on as well. And you can go through the different types and styles of videos and compare different approaches to the same type and compare also different types and how perhaps they approach creating videos. And you can also then use that for personal reflection about what you think works best for you and what the scene is out there for in terms of instructional videos. Now, in this video, I want to address some of the typical questions people ask when they're thinking about the format of the video. So the length, speed of transition, speed of delivery, whether there should be a face or not, whether you should have a script or not, what is the production value, and things like that. So let's start with the most controversial question out there, which is how long should a video be? And very often you will hear something like this, video should be no more than two minutes when it's on the internet. And that simply is not true. In fact, a good video length of instructional video is anywhere between six and 12 minutes. At least that's kind of what the research suggests. And then here we can ask ourselves like, how well can we trust the data? And much of the data comes from the research on MOOCs, and that finds often the recommendations there are for shorter rather than longer videos. But if you look at actually what videos people will watch, then we'll see that that actually doesn't quite bear it all out. And often videos that are at the higher end of the length are just fine. So let's have a look at some examples of where I think this comes up. So first, let's have a look at the site business school YouTube page. And these are the top 15 videos. And then we'll see that the top five are an hour bit over an hour long. And there is another 17 minute video, but also here's another hour long video. So four out of top 15 are very long videos by the internet standards. And then we see that people are willing to spend the time because there was something interesting. But we don't have to just stay there. We can have a look at on YouTube, which helpfully shows us views. And I search for calculus so that we have videos on a similar topic. And these are the top five videos that YouTube recommended to me to watch film and to learn more about calculus. And as you will see, they're all over 15 minutes long. And in fact, the most popular one is an hour and a half long, and it has a million, 1.2 million views. And that is just somebody standing in front of a whiteboard pretty much lecturing the way they were in the classroom. But when people have a subject they're really interested in, they're willing to spend the time and watch a video as long as they can learn from it. So I think that is the important distinction to make is between video for education where somebody is trying to bring somebody along onto a journey through a topic and tries to engage them in the topic and explain it as deeply as they can versus a promotional video. And often, of course, there are many videos that are two minutes long that are a minute and a half too long. So very often it is worth our time to make a short video when we're looking at promotional issues. But for education, I think we can see that longer videos are fine. And the other thing to take into account is that the language of video is changing and people's expectations are changing. So for example, on YouTube, the typical video is now well over 10 minutes. If we look at what Linda is using, we'll find that they also have videos that are six to 12 minutes long. They're much shorter, but generally they break down longer topics into videos about six to 12 minutes. So that's probably the thing. It's a fairly reasonable amount of time to keep your video in those parameters. And for education, that I think should be OK. Now the other question is the speed of the video, the speed of delivery, speed of transitions. So how fast should you speak when you're recording a video? Well, it turns out that the people who recommend speaking very slowly and enunciating actually are wrong. The research seems to show that higher speed of delivery is better than lower speed of delivery. And higher speed in this case is about 170 words per minute or a bit more, perhaps a bit less, which is higher than the average, which is anywhere with 140 and 150 words per minute. And there's some research that was done on comparing some popular tech talks. And the average of five of the popular tech talks they were investigating was 173 words per minute. And some of them were even over 200 words per minute, some of them were a bit slower as well. So you can see that the speed of delivery actually should not be very slow. And people seem to be engaging better with a bit faster delivery. And many people like me even will listen at a double speed, which is something that I recommend to people to try because that way you can not only learn a bit more, but some people find it easier to focus. Now, how about the speed of transitions? Well, the research is not exactly clear, but it seems to just that a bit slower is better. So you don't want to change things all the time. But it is important to not stay too long on one side, but balance that with the need for not having too many transitions. So it's a bit of a balancing act, and it's important to pay a bit of attention. But there isn't one magical formula how to do it. But perhaps the more traditional documentary style where you switching shots and angles of you all the time isn't most appropriate for instructional videos, unless of course it's something that's relevant to what you're trying to do. The other question that people often ask is, should there even be a face of the person shouldn't just be just sound and some instructional imagery as in animation and things like that? And it seems that the research shows that many people prefer a face. Actually, the majority of people prefer to have a face. So something like me in the video improves their engagement. The research doesn't seem to indicate that there is much difference in terms of learning from the video. But it's also important to remember there are some people who find that person in the video very distracting. So again, you need to sort of balance that need of the majority who prefer having a face in the video, but there's a minority and not a small, necessarily tiny minority of people who rather just have the voice and some of the images in there. Now, the next question that people often ask is, is it necessary to write a script for a video? And there are some, again, some things to keep in mind when thinking about scripts. So making a script makes the video much more consistent. You have every time you try to record it, it's exactly the same. You make sure you don't skip anything you want to say. And for a short video, it may be necessary to do it. The shorter the video, the more scripted, the more tightly planned it has to be. But it turns out that with a script, the downside is that it's a lot harder to make. And also, people don't know how to write a script very well. And also, it's not that easy to read a script. So people are not used to reading out and sounding natural. So actually, the recommendation that I would have is try using without a script. Many people are quite able to talk about a subject they know well and they talk about often. Quite fluently, there is going to be a lot of small imperfections, a lot of stumbles. You have to backtrack. But that just makes the video more natural. And some people find that a lot easier than reading a script. I would say perhaps even most people. But some people do need to follow a script, or at least some very strict notes. And that is fine as well. But there is sort of a balancing act. There is not one right answer. But it's certainly not completely necessary to have a script. Finally, the question I want to address is, what is the ideal production value? And what is the production value? Production value is basically the whole quality of the video, look and feel, what the video looks like, what the lighting, and you can immediately tell. So here what you see here are screenshots of three videos from the same course on Linda, or now LinkedIn Learning. So it's a course on negotiation skills. And so this first video was a video made in the early days of Linda, which is basically a PowerPoint with a moving face here. And then this is a video, not on Linda, but on you by the same person who's selling the course there as a self-produced course. And this is the new version of that same course on Linda. And you can immediately see the difference in production value, so the increase in production value. So how important is that? And it turns out it actually isn't that important for learning. And people are not that concerned with production values when they're watching it and trying to learn from videos. So it's important that the videos look good enough. And then there is a distractingly bad, certainly. But it doesn't seem to be super important that they all look very slickly produced, even though, of course, Linda's got one of the gold standards in here. Another example here is let's compare two videos on the subject of limits. And so the first one is from a YouTube channel called Three Blue One Brown. And as you can see, it's a very highly animated, slickly produced video. This channel is well known for that, explaining the concept of limits. As you can see, there's little animations, there's lots of changes, trying to be very visual about what it's explaining. And on the other hand, we have on the same subject a video from Khan Academy. And then you can see it's simply what you're seeing. There's somebody similar writing on a blackboard and talking while they're doing that. And that, turns out, it may be even more effective than some of these slick videos, because there's a connection that the person can make with you. So the production value isn't super important. As you can see also, you can see that backtracking and deleting things and saying, oh, I made a mistake here. But all of that makes you feel like somebody's explaining something to you. Now, another comparison we can make is here between two videos on different topics. But I think quite instructive. So on the left-hand side is Norman J. Wildberg, who is a mathematician, who makes videos about mathematics on different subjects on mathematics. He has hundreds of videos. Some of them are quite popular. They have thousands of views. And then he's just talking in front of a whiteboard and pointing at it and explaining something in a very traditional way. But I think it's quite effective. On the other hand, we have a series of videos, Introduction to Economics from Marginal Revolution University, which is a blog that started making these videos, and by Tyler Cowan and Alex Taburg, to Economics from America. And you can see very highly produced slick videos, a little shorter than the mathematics ones, which are half an hour or even an hour long. These are usually under 10 minutes. And you can certainly see there's a huge difference at the glance. But in terms of education, which ones are more effective? I don't think it's at all clear that these slickly produced videos are more effective than the more traditional ones. It really depends on how much are people trying to learn from them on their own. So I just think it's important not to be stuck on the production values. And as long as the videos are easy to access and not destructively bad quality, I think they can be very much used for learning. So that's about video formats. And in the next video, we're going to have a look at some of the aspects of video production.