Are you open for business?

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OpenBusiness is a website dedicated to supporting entrepreneurship based on open principles and is not just about open source software. These folks have developed an Open Business Guide, in the form of a wiki, to discuss the specifics of operating an open business:

Open Source [software] was the first sector in which peer-based production led to quality products. However, innovative business models have started to appear in other economic sectors experimenting with open approaches. Now there are online record labels using Creative Commons licenses, Open Source film projects, peer funded music labels, p2p finance services and the list of innovations regarding information management in the widest sense almost endless.

The wiki gives a lot of practical advice on how to profit by being more open. It is in many ways a simpler and synthesiszed version of Yochai Benkler’s work, The Wealth of Networks, which I would recommend as THE major reference on the digital networked economy.

On a related note, Matt Asay reports the COO of Fotango quitting when he found out that his company was abandoning its open source business model; stating, “Open source is not a tactic. It is not a strategy. It is the only practical way of competing in this marketplace.”

Closed companies are still making money, and profits, in much the same way that buggy makers continued to sell their products after the internal combustion engine was produced – for now.

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The old, closed model is doomed and openness is something that every company and non-profit organisation had better understand – soon.

Top ten tools

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My top ten tools for work and learning have been added to Jane Hart’s Favourite Tool Index. There are lots of recommendations here, and Jane will be compiling a Top 100 list.

Many of the tools that I’ve noted are open source, which in most cases means free as well. Source Forge, home of open source software, has just launched the Community Choice Awards, so check out which applications and utilities have been nominated.

Community of Practice Case Study

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I’m working on a community of practice for green building technologies and am discussing business community networks here in the Maritimes. I thought it would be a good time to review some lessons from the first online community I was responsible for.

The first online community of practice for which I was responsible was a project to enhance collaboration of members of the learning industry here in New Brunwsick, Canada (LearnNB).

The initial focus of this CoP was research and development, especially business models and commercialization. It was not intended to be a theoretical or academic community, but one looking at the development of practical applications- be they products, services, standards or models. Membership was open to anyone.

The major events during the course of this project (2003):

  1. Establishment of an initial blog
  2. Report on best practices in the establishment of a community of practice
  3. Interview protocol and initial interviews in New Brunswick, PEI and Nova Scotia
  4. Evaluation of technology platforms for the web presence of the community
  5. Discussions/conversations/interviews with interested members
  6. Establishment of two web-based systems for discussions, one private and one public
  7. Continuing discussions in person, via e-mail and through blogs with interested parties
  8. Fine-tuning of technology platforms

Here are some highlights from the Case Study:

Conclusions

  • A sense of community cannot be forced;
  • Communities are self-defined;
  • Communities are conversations; and
  • Communities evolve over time.
  • Face-to-face contact can be the impetus for online conversations, while
    • online contact can be the impetus for face-to-face meetings.
    • Communities of individuals appear to have stronger bonds than communities of companies;
    • blogging helps to define dispersed communities; and
    • password-protected web sites do not encourage conversation.

Recommendations

It was recommended that if there are future efforts in this area, then we should:

  • Keep the online community spaces for special projects and events.
  • Advertise the community space for others to test out blogging.
  • Encourage more community members to use blogs as a community building tool.

I felt that any efforts to foster community should be addressed at the grass roots level. Centralized command and control does not work well in this inter-networked world. Regional initiatives or very local initiatives seem to stand the greatest chance of success. Provincial [state] boundaries are blurry, and not part of many people’s sense of community.

Finally, the online community space never became an active place for discussion, conversation or sharing of ideas and knowledge. I keep plodding away with this blog, and Stephen Downes is also a local voice with a larger worldwide audience. Other Maritime bloggers who discuss learning & technology include Robert Paterson and Dave Cormier, both on Prince Edward Island. A more recent blogger is Charlene Croft in Nova Scotia, with some excellent insights.

The real me

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It seems that this is the real me; that is, if you think that five questions can determine your essence:


You’re Siddhartha!

by Hermann Hesse

You simply don’t know what to believe, but you’re willing to try anything once. Western values, Eastern values, hedonism and minimalism, you’ve spent some time in every camp. But you still don’t have any idea what camp you belong in. This makes you an individualist of the highest order, but also really lonely. It’s time to chill out under a tree. And realize that at least you believe in fairies.

Take the Book Quiz  at the Blue Pyramid.

Design for collaboration

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David Sean Lester is focused on collaboration and makes some interesting points on what to consider when designing for collaborative learning. David’s premise is that collaborative learning happens best in a middlespace and then he provides a comparative list of design considerations to support collaborative versus individual learning, for example:

  • practice vs theory
  • learning environment vs learning requirement
  • distributed leadership vs designated leadership
  • role seeking vs goal seeking

This is a good list for any instructional designer who is looking at incorporating collaboration into the design of a program, not just adding a few collaborative activities.

I should note that David and I had corresponded several years ago but lost touch. Thanks to Facebook we reconnected and I came across his new website.

From Troops to Teachers

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An article in The Pulse [offline] shatters some stereotypes about the military and those who serve. The author teaches at a university where military personnel are enrolled in education programs to become teachers. In speaking with these soldiers, Etta Kralovec finds out that the military culture can be much more inclusive than academia, “My experiences with these students has changed fundamentally my views about the military and who serves in it and what these folks can offer to students in our public schools.”

I learned early as a military instructor that everyone is teachable. Our training organisations worked on the premise that if a trainee failed, it was probably the fault of the instructor. This put the pressure on the instructors to find the best way to help soldiers to perform while the the trainees learned to work together. Kralovec observed that military students were more focused on supporting learning:

These students understand the notion of community in a very personal way. As soldiers, they learned to watch each others’ backs as well as work as a team member. These will not be teachers who close their doors and don’t share their websites. They are comfortable working in groups, bringing along everyone in their group as they complete projects. Unlike most other students, TTT [troops to teachers] students never say, “I don’t want to work in a group on this project.” They pitch in, divide up the tasks and get to it. Rather than try to negotiate an assignment, these folks just do it.

Sometimes we can learn from the most unexpected sources.

Online mind mapping

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Mindmeister is an online mind mapping application, similar to tools like Gliffy (diagramming) which offer a single type of application for free or a with a paid premium service. Like many Web 2.0 services, it’s easy to learn and gives you many export and sharing options. I created this map in a few minutes and exported it as a *.jpg.

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It won’t be long before most of our applications migrate off the desk top to the web. Here you can see several of the web applications I use to manage my online work. What I really like about these tools is that they are exceptionally easy to learn and they have collaboration built in. Oh, the fact that most are free sure lowers the barrier to trying them out :-)

Defining Literacy

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Since the turn of the century [1900], literacy rates in the US have declined from 90% to 35% [are there Canadian stats?]. Rob Paterson explains that this may be due in part to the rise of competitors (such as the records, movies, TV) to the print medium. Rob also shows that much more money put into the US public education system has had no effect on literacy.

Another perspective on the drop in literacy is from Mark Federman, in “Why Johnny and Janey Can’t Read, and Why Mr. and Ms. Smith Can’t Teach: The challenge of multiple media literacies in tumultuous times“. Mark puts forth that we are in a similar situation as when the written word replaced the spoken word (ancient Greece) or when the printed word replaced the written word (the Reformation & Enlightenment). Each of these technologies changed the way that society valued and understood knowledge. Mark concludes in his paper [pdf] that literacy is no longer our critical educational issue:

Have no fear – Johnny and Janey will, in all probability, learn to read, just as they learned to speak. But orality has not structured society since ancient Greece, and literacy no longer structures society today. The challenge for all the Mr. and Ms. Smiths throughout the academy, and eventually in the secondary and primary classrooms throughout the world, is to recognize that the exclusive focus and predominance given to the pedagogical artefacts of a literate world is inconsistent with the skills necessary to participate in the discovery and production of knowledge in a ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate world.

Our efforts that focus on print literacy may be for naught. Do linear literacy skills really prepare us for life in an electronically connected world? I don’t believe that we have done enough research on this issue, but if Mark is correct, then we are wasting a huge amount of time and effort on the wrong skills. We can use technologies such as fMRI to see what is going on in our brains, but we may be asking the wrong questions.

… and I have to add this quote from Alvin Toffler: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. “

Sustaining Online Communities

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Word on the street is that Facebook is becoming the default online community, making Linked-In, MySpace and others obsolete. I’m not so sure about this. For instance, Jay Cross, on another community site, Ning, wonders about the value of Facebook – Full Disclosure: I have Facebook, Linked-In and Ning accounts ;-)

Given that the Web is now about a billion people of varying age groups, cultural and linguistic preferences, I cannot see how one platform will meet everyone’s needs. Facebook has done well by opening its platform to other applications and this is fueling its current growth. However, as much as people are adding new applications, they’re dumping them just as fast.

This week I came across a new community, Carmun, focused on the needs of graduate students. I think it has some potential for its stated niche:

It [Carmun] connects students who share academic passions. It easily organizes academic research, and it is expanding the boundaries of universities by creating a database of rated and reviewed source material. Imagine an academic community where you can tap into the intellectual horsepower of students around the country or even the world.

Each online community has to be of value to its members but it should also be open to connect with other communities. Being open has propelled Facebook to the front of the pack, but I don’t think that it will preclude the development of new communities. Maintaining a community and making enough money to operate it are the real challenges and no one has a guaranteed model for this yet.

Independent Thinking

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I’ve been freelancing for over four years now and am always looking at how I’m doing business, what works and what doesn’t. Some days it seems that, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose“, in the words of Janis Joplin. Other days, it’s pretty darned good.

My introduction to freelancing came through Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation, still a good read for those considering the road less traveled. I also follow a few sites dedicated to independent work, such as Consultant Journal; Thinking Home Business and Why Go Solo. The advice from all of these sources is good and makes for interesting reading, but I think that being a free agent is very case specific. Like learning, it’s highly contextual. Every freelancer is different and in a unique set of circumstances. There is some general business advice that is suitable for everyone, but I think that freelancers have to cut their own path. There are no real rules and rock solid principles. As many consultants would say, “It depends”.

So here’s my advice.  For the most part, you can ignore everyone else’s advice. If you want to go out on your own, start paying attention to everything around you. That includes your own spending habits, how you connect with people, how you do your work and what’s going on in your field. Observe and listen. Look for patterns and make your own deductions. Then take action (like your first project/client) and spend some time reflecting on your actions and those of others. By doing, you will learn. In business and in life, it’s the doing that counts.