The Emperor Has No Clothes

by

For several years I’ve believed that corporatism is one of the primary systemic problems that we need to change in order to address our challenges of global warming, political instability, fundamentalism, poverty, education or environmental degradation. One of the more astute business blogs that I read is Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab (BGSL), where umair says it like it is:

The real problem is that the firm – the corporation, as the fundamental institution of production – is deeply and irrevocably broken. It’s DNA is in shock. The corporation we’ve created is a monster; a form of organization growing more pathological by the day.

BGSL studies industries, markets, firms, and their economics. So those (really) are strong words.

But the evidence is, at this point, almost impossible to refute.

The good news is that there we have options and “the movement” is a source of many new models, whether it be micro-credit, community-supported agriculture,  natural enterprises, etc.

Blessed Unrest

by

blessed-unrest.jpg

Over the holidays I read Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming by Paul Hawken. This is a book that is more a reference than a story and what will serve me well after reading the book is the extensive appendix, which is about 1/3 of the book. Hawken covers many themes familiar to readers of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth or Thomas Homer-Dixon’s The Upside of Down.

The approach taken by “the movement” to address problems, noticed by Hawken, is one that makes sense to me, given my own consulting business as well as some local initiatives that I’m involved with, such as our Commons.

The term solving for pattern was coined by Wendall Berry, and refers to a solution that addresses multiple problems instead of one. Solving for pattern arises naturally when one perceives problems as symptoms of systemic failure, rather than random errors requiring anodynes. For example, sustainable agriculture addresses a number of issues simultaneously: It reduces agricultural runoff, which is a main cause of eutrophication and dead zones in lakes, estuaries and oceans; it reduces use of energy-intensive nitrogen-based fertilizers; it ameliorates climate change, because organic soil sequesters carbon, whereas industrial farming releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and is the second-greatest cause of climate change after fossil fuel combustion; it improves worker health because of the absence of pesticide; it enables soil to retain more moisture and is thus less reliant on irrigation and outside sources of water; it is more productive than conventional agriculture; it is less susceptible to erosion; and it provides habitat for pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects, which promotes biodiversity. On top of all that, the resulting food commands a premium in the market, making small farms economically more viable. Solving for pattern is the de facto approach of the movement because it is resource constrained. It cannot afford “fixes”, only solutions.

This evening, I’m off to an executive meeting of the Sackville Community Supported Agriculture group, as we plan for this year’s challenge of supplying 60 families with good, locally-grown produce; up from 20 families last year.

An alarming fall in privacy protection

by

Each year since 1997, the US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have undertaken what has now become the most comprehensive survey of global privacy ever published. The Privacy & Human Rights Report surveys developments in 70 countries, assessing the state of surveillance and privacy protection.

From The 2007 International Privacy Ranking, it is quite clear that Canada is on a slippery slope to join our neighbour to the South. The USA rates on the worst end of the scale, as an endemic surveillance society, along with Russia, China and the UK. In 2006, Canada ranked fairly well as having significant protections and safeguards but this year we have arrived in a situation of some safeguards but weakened protection. The report notes that for Canada, there is “an alarming rate of fall in protection“.

It’s time for Canadians to wake up and smell the coffee.

Via the Creative Class Exchange

New Year’s Gratitude

by

Charles Green at Trust Matters suggests a new year’s gratitude list instead of a bunch of resolutions that we probably won’t keep. Great idea, as I never really tried to make resolutions anyway.

I’m grateful that I have been able to work for myself for almost five years and that I have followed many of my professional passions.  Today, with another 30 cm of fresh snow on the ground, I’m also appreciative that I do not have to commute to work. I’m grateful that I see my family almost every day and watch the boys as they arrive home from school.

I give thanks for my health, for the fact that I can ski or bicycle most days, and that my family is mostly healthy. I’m also very grateful that I live in a country with public health care.

Access to the Internet, and the ability to connect to thousands of other people who share some of my passions, is something that I still find amazing. I’m grateful for a relatively neutral Net that allows me to work and learn.

Information overload or just the wrong tools?

by

Information overload is supposed to be the scourge of 2008, reports Ars Technica, and one way to address it, according to this news article referencing the same report, is to be smarter with our e-mail.

e-mail.jpg

E-mail is like cars in an urban metropolis; neither effective nor efficient due to the fact that there are just too many of them. Instead of optimizing an almost-dead technology, I’d suggest using better tools. Set up blogs for one-to-many communications; have wikis for projects, teams and departments; and use instant messaging for quick person-to-person communications. Then keep track of it all with a feed aggregator. With these tools and practices in place, e-mail can be reserved for more official traffic, like sending an invoice or a proposal.

The kids know this already. E-mail is only used to communicate with your parents.

Some year-end stats

by

Checking some of my stats for the past 365 days and thought they might be of interest.

Search Engines that direct readers here:

  • 95% Google
  • 2% Yahoo!
  • 1% Ask Jeeves
  • 1% MSN

Browser used:

  • 51% IE
  • 36% Firefox
  • 6% Safari

Screen resolution:

  • 37% 1024 x 768
  • 14% 1280 x 1024
  • 13% 1280 x 800
  • 7% 1280 x 768

If my stats are indicative, which they may not be as many of my readers are early adopters, then Google is still the dominant search engine, Firefox is gaining ground but IE prevails, and almost everyone has a high resolution screen.

Head East

by

bridge-st-cafe.jpg

Canada’s east coast seems to have some of its happiest residents. While not rated high for all those cosmopolitan virtues that Vancouver may have, it seems that we are happy “down east”. Living in Sackville, we’re in the middle of four happy cities – Charlottetown, Saint John, Moncton and Halifax – all of which placed in the top ten. From CBC News:

According to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Canadians are most likely to be satisfied with the quality of life in places like Saint John, Moncton, N.B., and Charlottetown, all of which placed in the top five of a survey of 18 Canadian cities.

We also have lots of water that is not being drained to extract oil, reasonable housing prices and some interesting new businesses. So sell that expensive house and head east with the extra cash to fund the start-up that you always dreamed of :-)

Photo by gmcmullen

PKM – my best tool

by

Technology is the application of organized and scientific knowledge to solve practical problems.

I dug up this quote from my personal knowledge management (PKM) system, or outboard brain, or whatever you want to call it. The quote is from Harold Stolovitch, and it’s stored on this blog from a post I made over three years ago. My PKM system is a technology in this sense.

I know people who get hundreds of e-mail each day. I don’t. I also meet people who work in companies and have to make decisions or set direction but who do not have time to read. I can understand how time constraints force you to reduce “discretionary” activities such as reading, but how are you able to learn if you don’t take the time to read, listen, reflect and then make your own understanding explicit for others to understand?

One PKM process, of using web tools to sort [triage] , categorize, make explicit, and retrieve, is shown in this graphic:

pkm21.jpg

Some of my practical problems, when I started this blog were:

  • I needed a way to connect with others in my field in an inexpensive way (blog)
  • I wanted to mine some of the knowledge out there (feed reader)
  • After a while, I wanted to share what I was finding, or have it available when I was in a discussion (social bookmarks)

What I found out later was that I was creating a resource that I could use whenever I had some related work to do. My blog is the first place I search when I have an article or report to write. The process of writing, reflecting, discussing & annotating has given me a digital library brimming with my own sticky notes that I can easily find.

If you’re looking for a resolution for 2008, I would recommend the adoption and use of some kind of Web PKM system if you don’t have one yet. Here’s a reason why, from Ryan Lanham:

Leading, or leadership, is the process of using our own learning to enable the learning of others.

Keeping life simple

by

Are you the family ‘go-to’ geek that everyone calls upon when they have computer problems? You may want to give a Zonbu as a self-interested gift. I gave one to Andrea for Christmas and it was installed in less than five minutes. That means up and running with no EULA or anything else to sign. The Zonbu is a mini computer operating on a Linux Gentoo operating system that has been installed with a customized and user-friendly interface. The system updates itself when you go online. That means that you never have to add an update, patch, virus protection or anything else. The total cost for me, including shipping, taxes and duty was $140, less than my next RAM upgrade.

The Zonbu comes with a 4 GB flash drive, no fan, no hard drive (that means low power use), and 6 USB ports. It also has about 20 installed applications; enough for your ‘average’ computer user. I purchased a 2 year service agreement for $15/month that gives Andrea 50 GB of online storage that is automatically updated by the system.

andrea-with-zonbu.jpg

What I really like about the Zonbu is that no one can mess it up (including teenagers), because the OS is locked-down. You can buy an open version of the Zonbu, but that would defeat the purpose of paying for software as a service. For me it’s peace of mind :-)

Big Consulting Companies Jumping on Bandwagon 2.0

by

It looks like social media (wikis, blogs & social networking) are going the way of e-learning and knowledge management (KM). That means big companies charging big fees for cookie-cutter solutions. Jon Husband reports on this phenomenon for 2008 and advises Caveat emptor:

Big firms either 1) develop standardized methodologies and practices (their business models depend upon it), or 2) if their business model does not depend upon the standardization, they will charge you a mint and a half (McKinsey ?)

The organization(s) [clients] will in my opinion get better advice rooted in critical thinking and experience and focused on results, as opposed to maintaining an expensive dependency on canned rhetoric that may not be based in much experience. For example, what exactly is “Advanced” Web 2.0 technology ? Blogs with lots of colourful widgets ?

As I’ve said before, Free-agents and natural enterprises are better. The upstart independents and small consultancies have Clayton Christensen’s disruptive Sword & Shield which the incumbents (large consultants) don’t have. With early motivation to enter this emerging field (Shield) and now with with years of experience and skills (Sword), we the “upstarts” should be able to hold our own.

When e-learning and KM first came out, it was difficult to market your services without expensive campaigns. On top of that, the IT tools were expensive. Now the best tools are open source, leveling the playing field even more. The rules have changed for 2008, and we upstarts can significantly engage in a conversation with our markets using our own tools with which we’ve developed a certain expertise.

The game is afoot!