Cognitive Surplus

by

This is a connecting-the-dots post. Jim McGee discusses Clay Shirky’s recommendation to start looking at how we can leverage “cognitive surplus”:

The first order of business for business is to immediately appropriate Shirky’s term. Organizations that care about innovation and adaptive capacity should begin talking about “cognitive surplus”. Look for ways to measure it, if only crudely, and increase it.

Dave Pollard also talks about the need to spend time making sense of data and that by 2020 this will become a full-time vocation for some people:

The main complaint from businesspeople and the public about information in 2020? This hasn’t changed since 2008 — it’s still information overload. But at least in 2020 the value of information intermediaries has been rediscovered — people who are skilled at (and have time to) ‘make sense’ of the raw information coming at us in unmanageable amounts. And as a result a little more attention is paid to the meaning, implications and possible actions that stem from all this information.

More people are working in creative fields today, because if your work is not creative then it will likely be outsourced to a cheaper labour market or done by a computer. That makes creativity a more valuable skill, but being creative isn’t something you can just turn on and off. Just ask any artist.

The notion of cognitive surplus now becomes a critical business attribute. How do I stay creative and therefore competitive? Some companies give you time to pursue other activities but the norm is to look busy while “at work”.

The notion that moving from consuming broadcast media to creating interactive media is now engaging a new generation is quite fascinating. Just think of all the hours spent watching TV that can now be used to generate ideas – some good and many bad – but they’re being generated on an enormous scale. Now take this idea one step further and think of all the time wasted in the workplace just consuming – listening at meetings; reading directives, waiting for someone else to make a decision; commuting; etc. Imagine what could happen when an entire organisation can use all of its cognitive surplus.

Walled Gardens

by

Following up on Boring is Good, I think that the major barrier to use of these systems, whether collaboration or learning-oriented, is the “walled garden” framework. If I have “to go” somewhere, then that’s a barrier to use. E-mail comes to me, so it’s easy. Personally, I prefer using my feed aggregator to follow people and news. I use my blog and then perhaps Facebook to write once and publish to many. I find these tools EASIER than e-mail, but I’ve been using them for a long time.

For small groups, e-mail still works well, even though many of us have seen its limitations in terms of finding something buried in the pile. What will work are small applications or widgets that let the learner/user add what is needed at the time. The problem with most organisations (schools, businesses, universities) is that they force the learner to adopt to their system. And what makes it worse for the learner is that they cannot transport any artifacts from one garden to another. This begs the question, how can walled gardens enable cross-pollination?

A simple method for online collaboration for an educational institution would be to ask each student and staff member to have a blog. it doesn’t matter which blog platform is chosen and not everyone has to use the same one. For course work that requires posting of information or conversation around it, just decide upon a common Tag for that course, lesson or theme. Add in social bookmarks, wiki spaces for collaborative work and maybe a social network and let everyone use whatever plug-ins they need. All the institution needs to do is provide some aggregation, cataloguing and external indexing and there you have a real “Learning management System”. The testing function can be kept separate from the learning (as it should be), so there’s no need for all those tracking features.

That is how how your walled garden can become a resilient and growing ecosystem.

Photo by recursion_see_recursion

Boring is good

by

I thought that enterprise top-down software was a thing of the past and that small pieces loosely joined was the new model, but I’ve been in learning hell with a community of practice platform that uses the walled garden metaphor to the extreme.

Christopher Sessums refers to Clay Shirky’s comment in Here Comes Everybody, that “Communication tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring” . Christopher adds:

In other words, it’s not the invention of the tool that holds value; it’s the tool’s ubiquitousness that contains the value which ultimately leads to profound social changes.

Similarly, the tools that support virtual communities probably won’t be very interesting until they become invisible, everyday components in our lives. For some, this is already the case and as such we are beginning to see new and powerful means to share, commune, and identify with one another.

Message to tool builders – you cannot be ubiquitous inside a walled garden.

I have spent a few days trying to figure out my client’s system. This will be a larger problem when a casual computer user has to make sense of all of the functions as well as the underlying model of the platform.  Having created several online communities and participated as a member and a moderator of many more, I can’t see how a community can grow if there is any difficulty in using the technology. The only case where a complicated system will work is when the option of not using it is unacceptable. The litmus test for any community software should be, “is it easier than e-mail?”, because that is what most users will compare it to.

Net Working

by

Le Café (Clark, Dave, George, Jane, Jay, and me) is in its infancy as a group of collaborators, but we’ve just finished an exercise that I think really shows the power of networks.

Jay is on-site with a large company and during the day many questions came up that needed more reflection and multiple perspectives. Jay posted these questions and the rest of us commented on our wiki or via e-mail (firewall issues). Not only do we offer multiple perspectives, but the fact that we live in multiple time zones works to our advantage as well. Comments came in last night and I edited these and sent a synthesized version to Jay before he had breakfast this morning. Even though I’m used to spinning on a dime, the speed of reaction and the ease of weaving our comments together still amazed me.

Democratic Workplaces

by

The WordBlu most democratic workplace list is out for this year, with several Canadian companies on it:

1-800-GOT-JUNK?

Axiom News

La Siembra

TakingITGlobal

As my “not-yet-published” bio for our Cafe society reads, I’m rather interested in democracy:

Harold likes to analyze situations, sense patterns, and make sense of them. He enjoys acting as “adviser of last resort.” He works at the convergence of business, learning, organizations and technology. He finds working with NGOs gratifying. Most of his work involves democratization of the work force. He establishes self-sustaining communities. He believes “Open,” broadly defined and including resilience, diversity, and ecological models.

I’m also reading The Great Turning, which offers an excellent review of the development of democracy, from the original Athenian experience to the American revival of democracy two millennia later. As David Korten states in the section, America, the Unfinished Project:

We think of ourselves as a nation of problem solvers. To solve a problem, however, we must first acknowledge it. To this end, the following chapters take an unflinching look at the realities and implications of our national imperial legacy, the imperfections of our democracy, our reckless relationship with the natural environment, and the real and inspiring struggles for justice of people of color, women, and working people, to whom justice has long been denied.

Democracy is neither a gift nor a license; it is a possibility realized through practice grounded in a deep commitment to truth and an acceptance of the responsibility to seek justice for all.

Business Cards 2.0

by

I’m starting to run out of business cards and I’ve been using the same design since I started this business in 2003. The original design was intentionally conservative and I have no urge to change it. However, I decided to try a parallel path and test out Moo minicards. These are very small business cards (very “2.0-ish”) which can be printed on demand. I ordered 100 cards and a small case and used one of the available designer themes. You can also import Flickr photos and best of all, each card can have a different design.

I’m already considering my next order and Andrea wants a bunch from her Flickr gallery to use as business cards and price tags for her art work. I can also see these cards as quite useful for events like conferences. The shipping is very fast, even to Atlantic Canada :-)

Is Johnny Bunko Right?

by

I recently picked up Dan Pink’s latest book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You’ll Ever Need, that tells the story about a young man working in the corporate rat race who is befriended by Diana, a magical advisor with six lessons for Johnny to uncover. Because it’s a graphical, Manga-style book it’s a fast and easy read (about an hour). The lessons are fine but not earth shattering. However, the book may foster more conversations about work and careers and may engage younger readers, so that’s a good thing. Lesson #1, There Is No Plan, is good advice and in hindsight would have been good for me 30 years ago.

I was thinking about Johnny’s lessons when I heard about the CPRN’s latest research report on youth and the labour market in Canada, which makes this observation:

Canada has a relatively high percentage of well-educated young adults who see themselves as over-qualified for their jobs.

That’s where Lesson # 3 may be appropriate for youth – It’s Not About You, or as Diana says, “Of course you matter. But the most successful people improve their own lives by improving others’ lives” . Or put more directly, it’s not about qualifications, it’s about making a difference.

I would add to Johnny’s list that no one deserves a job because of some qualification, and many qualifications do not correlate directly with work requirements. The only job that a university degree directly qualifies you for is another university degree. Sitting in a classroom, writing essays and answering tests is not the workplace. Solving real problems, of importance to others, within existing constraints – is what most work is about.

For more information, check out The Adventures of Johnny Bunko.

Community Building

by

Note: See related posts at the Non-profit Blog Carnival: Social Media Roundup

Today is Earth Day so I thought I’d pass on what I’ve been doing at the Atlantic Wildlife Institute (AWI) where I volunteer as the Director Education, though I’m not limited to just educational activities.

We’ve been working on building a wildlife response network, first in Atlantic Canada and eventually throughout the country.

Effective response to wildlife emergencies requires coordination and commitment from diverse and sometimes divergent stakeholders. In order to build capacity to respond to wildlife emergencies across Canada, AWI envisions a Wildlife Response Network. When fully functional, this network will provide communities, industry, and regulators with standards and strategies for dealing with wildlife crisis scenarios.

No single organization, be it public or private, can hope to address all the concurrent challenges (habitat destruction, climate change, and the widespread use of pesticides and herbicides) of today. AWI’s approach is to build on existing partnerships with public and private sector businesses and academic institutions to create a gateway for sharing knowledge and resources.

One aspect of this network is to use the Web to connect with other groups and individuals. We were considering building a community using a content management system and then hiring people for data entry, but our budget was reduced this year. So a little while ago I figured that there must be a more Web 2.0 way to do this and set out to do it.

I decided to start a low-key parallel development project using free or very cheap resources and get as much data out there as possible. I opened a wordpress.com account and paid $15 for a domain name, atlanticwildlife.org, which is now live but only a shell. I also looked at what other platforms we could use for sharing. We are setting up a new Flickr Pro site (which is now free for charities), and I’ll transfer photos from my AWI set and then start uploading like crazy so we can share with the world. I also created my first Swivel data set and will get some more up. Instead of developing our own animal database, we will leverage and support the Encyclopedia of Life. We’ll connect with teachers and learners on Ning, which is in very early development. The biggest expense so far is time.

atlanticwildlifeorg.jpg

I’ll be adding information and data over the next few months and will then start the longer task of connecting to people and building a community. I’d appreciate any other recommendations for tools, applications and platforms that we could plug into the network.

Reaching interesting markets

by

In anticipation of the AIM Conference in May, Steve at Business New Brunswick asks:

Here is another offer for you to consider: We would like to find local success stories of companies using the Internet to export, or just using it in a unique way or to reach interesting markets. Do you fall into this category? If so, and you would like to be part of our pre-conference press program, give me a call right now or send me an email.

I’ll be speaking at AIMC on the topic of Marketing Yourself as a Free-Agent on the Internet about my own experience and also highlighting other free-agents and small businesses. I would say that a large part of my success as a consultant is due to my use of the web to engage in the multi-way conversations that it enables.

For instance, my website in its first year online (2003) had about 700 unique visitors. In 2007 there were over 1.3 million. I attribute that growth to the increasing use of the web by more people but also to this professional blog, started in 2004.

The only money I spend on marketing is for my website. I have never purchased advertising. By writing regularly about my fields of interest, my blog has helped me get speaking engagements, writing assignments and requests for reviews of books, businesses and software. Some of these are paid, but in no case did I have to lay out cash for what amounts to marketing.

I have had clients find me via search engines and then my blog gives a good idea of what I’m about. It also helps to weed out clients who may not be a good match with my skills and outlook. However, my blog is about much more than marketing and I would continue it just for my own professional development. The advantage is that I don’t need to spend money on someone else to sell my services.

How else could an independent consultant living in Sackville (pop. 5,000), New Brunswick (pop. 740,000) be able to work with clients and partners spread over thousands of kilometres? There are no great secrets to this and I’ll post my notes and observations after my presentation on 6 May.

Skills 2.0

by

Skills 2.0 is now part of this month’s Work/Learning Blog Carnival hosted by Manish Mohan.

My article in T&D, the journal of ASTD, was published this month, and if you’re a member of ASTD you’ll see it in the monthly journal or you can access it online. I’ve attached the article below.

skills21.JPG

This article covers issues that I often refer to on this blog and there is little new for regular readers. It is geared toward learning professionals who may want to know why it’s important to understand the Web for training and development.

Download PDF: L&D Skills 2.0

I submitted this post for the work/learning carnival because it synthesizes much of my writing about learning on the Web. The Web has changed the rules for teachers, educators, trainers and especially learners. How we react to this change is up to us.

Enabling learning is no longer about just disseminating good content, if it ever was. Enabling learning is about being a learner yourself, sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm and then taking a back seat. In a flattened learning system there are fewer experts and more fellow learners on paths that may cross. With practice, one can become a guide who has already walked a path. As fields of practice and bodies of knowledge expand, a challenge for learning professionals will be to change their tool sets from prescriptive to supportive.

Today I came across an excellent example of collaborative learning used by Ken Caroll in training language hosts:

At the moment, we’re in the process of inducting (training?) some new hosts for the podcast lessons – we’ll be launching FrenchPod and ItalianPod. Instead of simply telling them how to do that we’ve focused them on producing “artifacts”, that is samples of the lessons they eventually aspire to. We encourage participants to produce a much as possible – a lesson per day, for example. After that, we get together with them as well as practitioners of differing levels/experience, to reflect, discuss, and offer feedback.

The focus on doing has been literally very productive. Discussion are focused and concrete, the process of learning, visible. We blog as we go along, and we link to samples of the artifacts as we do so. We’ve also started recording the feedback sessions themselves and linking to those, too.