Month: September 2005

Performative Ties

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An article on Performative Ties from Knowledge@Wharton (requires free membership) describes how professional services companies use informal transfer methods to leverage their knowledge. In a study conducted by Prof. Sheen Levine, it was found that:

…what gives firms competitive advantage isn’t just their repository of sheer knowledge, but their use and encouragement of so-called “performative ties” — those impromptu communications made by colleagues who are strangers in which critical knowledge is transferred with no expectation of a quid pro quo.

Performative ties, as described in this article, seem to be similar to the weak ties that could help you get a job much easier than strong, familial ties can. The research on performative ties for knowledge-sharing inside corporations shows that loose peer-to-peer networks are effective ways to transfer implicit knowledge.

I think that those same performative ties exist outside these professional services companies, especially amongst bloggers. Reading or commenting on a blog creates a weak tie that can be used to ask a more pointed question via e-mail. I have done this on a several occasions, and have received similar requests. The responses are always quick and candid.

According to Levine, “What they [professional services firms] do well, is move knowledge around effectively, taking the company’s entire accumulated know-how and gathering it quickly to a single point to create a solution for a client.” If that is their prime competitive advantage then looser groups of independent consultants, who share through their blogs, may be just as effective at providing professional services as these more structured companies that currently rule the market. That’s positive news for me and my associates :-)

Learning Design as Gardening

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Jay’s recent post on Another way of Looking at Instructional Design connects well with Rob’s post on Small Pieces Loosely Joined. Jay moves from the traditional ADDIE model of instructional design to a garden metaphor:

Gardeners don’t control plants, and managers don’t control people. The most that either can do is nurture growth by supplying nutrients and pulling weeds. Gardeners and managers have influence but not absolute authority. They can’t make a plant fit into the landscape or a person fit into a team.

Learning is a continuous process, not a fill-er-up course and you’re on your way. The garden metaphor could go a long way in changing attitudes about learning and our approach to training and educational design.

It’s Your Turn, New Brunswick

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Massachusetts has led the way in embracing open standards, many of which are used in open source platforms and applications. According to CIO Today:

The State of Massachusetts is migrating to open-source software for all government documents. The move will come at the expense of Microsoft and other proprietary technology providers.
The latest iteration of the state’s technical reference guidelines states that the OpenDocument format will become the de facto platform for text, spreadsheets, charts and graphical documents produced by the government to ensure future access to the records.

OpenOffice.org uses the Open Document format. It is open source, free and with the impending release of version 2.0 (now in Beta Release 2), even easier to use. Just converting to OOo could save a significant amount in licensing fees and allow anyone, anywhere to use the same office suite for free.
New Brunswick’s "e" initiatives come under the umbrella of eNB. In looking at the site, as well as the latest draft of the eNB Action Plan, I cannot find any reference to open standards – a critical component for long-term accessibility to our own data. So come on New Brunswick, open up.
Update: And one more reason why standards are important is that – "The poor people from New Orleans and the Gulf, who drastically require access [to] the FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] website can only do so with IE on Windows!" As Doc Searls puts it:

Without standards how would the Meter, a Gallon of gasoline or water or the weight of gold be measured? How many dead or hobbled sites does it take before your company wakes up and smells the truth?? I sincerely hope Mr. Balmer and Mr. Gates read web blogs. If they do, please make sure they see this.
We must comply to W3C standards. The whole world needs them. We have a responsibility to everyone, even the one who needs our help in such troubled times.

Small (Learning) Pieces Loosely Joined

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Rob Wall talks about what he learnt after his DIY Learning presentation. In his OPML presentation (click on the page to continue the 8 page slide show) on eLearning Processes Using Small Technologies Loosely Joined, Rob quickly goes over the argument against monolithic systems that purport to do everything. The major components of small pieces for learning are – blogs, wikis and RSS. The key message here, which I agree with, is that "The components of the DIY eLearning System are the Learning Objects".

Remember – Any digital resource that can be reused to support learning
A blog is a reusable digital portfolio
  • easy content entry
  • comments and reflections by peers
  • student work is published to the world
A wiki is a reusable digital whiteboard
  • Monitor students work on reports as they are working
  • Give feedback instantaneously
  • Publish knowledge to the world

This is still a difficult message to get past many educational institutions and training organisations. You don’t have to spend a lot on the technology. You need to focus on getting the people and processes aligned so that learning happens. Save the money that you would spend on an LCMS and put it into the time to let people develop processes that work for their unique contexts.

Gas up or plug in?

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An interesting dichotomy is appearing in our world. The price of communication is decreasing while the price of transportation is increasing. Most of our transportation systems rely on oil and it is becoming more expensive to travel any distance. At the same time, many of us have the luxury of cheap global communications, with fixed monthly long-distance rates, e-mail and more recently – voice over IP.
I’m wondering if the recent price increases in gas will finally push us into new models of work. Some organisations allow for tele-commuting and there are virtual workers with satellite offices spread all over the world, but the norm is still the worker going to the workplace. For some this is a necessity, but in many cases it’s a job requirement to ensure that employees are kept under control.
Working at a distance – with the Internet as my medium and software as my tools – has been my work reality for a few years. It takes some skill and knowledge to work virtually but I sure am glad that I no longer have my 110 km (68 mile) daily commute with gas at $CA 1.30 per litre (=$US 4.15 per gallon).