Communities

communities of interest and practice

Learning through Blogging

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When you write a blog, your thoughts and comments, right or wrong, stay online for a long time. In reviewing what I have been jabbing about for the past year, I’ve pieced together some of my previous conclusions – warts & all:

Starting with learning in general:

It seems pretty clear; the basic unit of learning is the person. This person is indivisible. All learning activities, products and strategies must be centered around the person. We can then go on to develop environments for many people, but the individual is the building block – not the learning object, the course, the programme, or the institution. All of these are temporary organisations that the individual may use, or be part of.

And moving on to learning at work:

My conclusion for a while has been that knowledge cannot be managed, and neither can knowledge workers. It will take a new social contract between workers and organisations in order to create an optimally functioning enterprise. Adding management and technology won’t help either. This is the crux of everything in the new "right-sized, lean, innovative, creative" economy – getting the right balance between the organisational structure and the knowledge workers.

However:

Training without clear performance objectives, that are relevant to each learner, is useless.

And on the positive side:

What’s exciting about workflow learning is that the technology has caught up to some of the theory, and the globalized economy is making workflow learning (or something resembling it) a necessity.

Not only possible, but cheap:

An organisation’s entire KM effort could start with simple technologies. It could provide a blog to everyone, letting workers blog as they wanted. RSS aggregators could keep an eye on blogs of interest, and maybe even a blog rating system could be included in the performance management system. Yes, the better writers would get better rankings, but so would those who solve problems. A bottom-up approach to KM, at a minimal cost, makes a lot more sense than betting that some centralized system, with a huge training bill, will solve all of our problems.

Because:

What I like best about open source is that the development process is a real meritocracy, much like being an entrepreneur. In small business, if you don’t deliver, you can’t make an honest living.

And finally:

Informal learning, facilitated by the likes of blogs & wikis, works well for general education, and for continued learning outside of the "classroom". Informal learning (education in the broadest sense) is messy by its very nature. Training, such as how to drive a car, can use a more scientific method to
optimize training time, achieve the desired performance and reduce the risk of accidents. Training and education can even use the same tools, like simulations, but not the same approach. Education and training are complementary, but distinct.

Still a work in progress ;-)

Conference on Engaging in Open Source

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The ACM Chapter at Dalhousie University in Halifax is hosting the Conference on Engaging in OS on 12/13 May. Invited speakers include folks from Sun and the Department of National Defence. Exploring the Business of Open Source by Brian Barry looks interesting. The organisers are still calling for papers, but I cannot find any information on how to register or the cost of admission. Anyone else know more about this?

I’d be willing to carpool if any New Brunswickers or PE Islanders want to head down for one or both days. Also would be interested if anyone knows the presenters, or has heard them before. For those outside of the area, you might want to attend this conference in Halifax on the Thursday/Friday and then head to Fredericton for the Monday/Tuesday Learning Innovations Symposium – a double header! Any comments from the Moncton LUG members or other groups?

Update: Registration info is now available, with fees listed as $75 + HST (On or Before April 28, 2005) or $100 + HST after the 28th.

Stock & Flow

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Lee Lefever at CommonCraft has re-linked to a series of three posts that he made last year on stock and flow in online communication. There’s a neat graphic at the main link, summarized as:

Flows = Timely & Engaging (e.g. radio, speeches, e-mail, blogs)
Stocks = Archived, Organized for Reference (e.g. web site, database, book, voice mail)

Lee discusses the changes that are happening within television, as TiVo (TV on demand) changes the medium from one of flow (and therefore engaging) to one of stock (and therefore of less value). He also says that blogs are so engaging because they allow flow.

This got me to thinking about the whole notion of digital content in education. Fewer people are willing to pay for content which is just stock, such as self-paced online courses. Stock is like product – over time, price tends to zero. You need flow to provide value (context), enabled through social interaction. For instance, MIT’s open courseware initiative makes the stock available for free, but you have to pay to participate in the flow (class membership). On the other hand, flow without any stock could become noise; everyone talking but no one taking notes or referring to previous knowledge. I think that you need both stock and flow, especially in education. It’s just becoming harder to offer one of these alone for a fee.

On this blog, it’s the flow that keeps the conversation fresh, and the stock that gradually builds in value over time. To keep this valuable, you need to have steady flow and an easy way to access the stock that you may need. I’m going to work on a site redesign in the near future and see how I can improve both stock and flow.

Small Business Leads the Way

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Rafe Needleman writes in ZD Net how big businesses have a lot to learn from small businesses. His interview with the Chief Technology Strategist from Accenture resulted in the realisation that small businesses set the example in efficiency and optimal technology use. For instance, it was the home office that pioneered the Palm Pilot, avoids technology infrastructure investments (can’t afford them) and is already using blogs for knowledge transfer.

In fact, I think these giant firms, with their one-letter stock ticker symbols, have a lot to learn from small businesses — the millions of companies that constantly do more with less, live by their wits and not their inertia, and actually make up the backbone of the US economy.

Many of my clients are interested in the tools that I’m using (Skype, Open Office, blogs, wikis, open source), or some innovative knowledge-sharing processes, but usually come up against a brick wall with HR, IT, Purchasing, etc. Memo to decision-makers in large firms: look to small businesses to see what "really" works in the networked office.

Via eBiz Blog

The Tantramar Commons …

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I had some great conversations over the weekend, mostly around the
ideas of The Commons Network, first posted by Rob
Paterson, and now being implemented with the Queen
Street Commons. This has given me the impetus
to resurrect the idea
of the Sackville
SOHO Society, though I think I’ll change it to
the Tantramar
Commons.

I’m going to start by getting a small group of people
involved in the design of our own Commons. We originally started in
2003 by meeting at the Bridge Street Cafe in downtown Sackville. The
cafe now offers free WiFi service, so it might be even more
attractive as a meeting place. Take a note of this if you’re driving
past Sackville on the
Trans-Canada Highway and want to go online.

Anyway, I’m planning on
heading to Charlottetown in the next few weeks and see how the Queen
Street Commons is progressing and find out what lessons they’ve
learned so far. As we progress (once again), I’ll post my thoughts,
and would appreciate any input or advice. Hope springs eternal!

Re-mixing the Cluetrain for Education

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Regular readers knows that I often refer to The Cluetrain Manifesto. If you haven’t read it yet, take a look at the 95 theses, but I’d suggest that you read the whole book – online or in print. Scott Adams has taken the theses and re-mixed them for education. I’ve re-mixed a bit more, but don’t have the energy (yet) to address all 95:

  • Learning is conversation.
  • Learners are human beings, not demographic sectors.
  • What’s happening to education is also happening among learners. A metaphysical construct called "The School" is the only thing standing between the two.
  • To traditional educational institutions, networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we, the learners, are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.

Go ahead and play some more – this is fun :-)

“What do knowledge workers want?”

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I was able to grab onto a free copy of the September edition of The Global Knowledge Review (paid subscription required), but only recently read it. I found that the two most interesting articles were by people whose blogs I read regularly – Dave Pollard and Lilia Efimova. Dave’s piece was focused on "What do knowledge workers want?" He summed up his interviews with over 100 front line workers with these general statements on their needs:

I can’t find anything.
I get what I need more effectively from conversations.
Knowledge gathering isn’t the best use of my time.
I prefer private knowledge stocks that I don’t trust others enough to share.

I’m a front line worker in my team of one and I thought about how I’ve been managing my knowledge for the past couple of years. I’ve already mentioned the benefits of blogging, so I’ll take it from there.

My blog forces me to make tacit some of my implicit thoughts and ideas. It also gives a place for some (rather limited) conversation through referrals from other bloggers and comments on this site. The real value is having a searchable database of these tacit tidbits. I probably search this site at least once a day, looking for something that I vaguely remember, in order to put it into a report or an e-mail, etc.

Recently, I’ve noticed that I’m commenting on other blogs more than writing on my own. I find this to be more intellectually stimulating and much better for my own learning. With about 100 blogs in my feed reader, there is always something to learn. Tracking these conversations is much more difficult, as different platforms have their unique requirements for following a conversation’s thread. It’s better than the traditional threaded discussion forum, though I still engage in some of these.

The other tool that helps a lot is Furl. This provides another tagged, searchable database of interesting websites. Furl also caches a copy for personal use, so the website will always be there for reference. Furl is very quick and easy to use, and great for sharing sites on a particular topic. For instance, I have a public education category to share with my wife.

Skype (voice over IP) is letting me have more and longer voice conversations. I use the free, computer to computer function for several hours at a time when I’m working with distributed teams. Free telephone service sure helps when your project partners are 3,000 km away.

So to get back to Dave’s statements on what knowledge workers want, I think that as an independent consultant, with my own blog and some free tools like Bloglines and Furl:

I can find most things
I get most of what I need from general written conversations and specific oral conversations – online (though I still like face-to-face discussions).
Knowledge gathering is a good use of some of my time because I’ve developed a few efficient processes.
I still keep some private knowledge stocks, but use the public ones more often.

These cheap and simple tools have made the job of knowledge worker much easier, at least for those of us outside the typical corporate policies and firewalls.

Blogs are here to stay

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A recent article in the The Knowledge@Wharton Newsletter (requires free subscription) on blogging shows how mainstream the medium is becoming:

What is clear is that opportunities for blogging abound. Companies can use bloggers to put a more human face on interactions with employees and customers; marketers can create buzz through blogs; and bloggers can act as fact checkers for the mainstream media. There are dozens of applications for blogs, [Prof. Kevin] Werbach notes, and many that haven’t even been conceived yet. To be sure, the concepts behind blogging aren’t exactly new. Comment and feedback have been around as long as the Internet itself. What’s new is the ease with which anyone can publish their thoughts on any number of topics, whether it’s the latest Congressional hearings, the newest gadget or the hottest pair of shoes. "Blogging is really driven by interest and desires, not commercial activity," says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader. "It’s rare to see something take off like this when commercial prospects are so minimal. People just want to share ideas."

This article covers a wide variety of perspectives on blogging and is a good read for the uninitiated.

Blogging seems to be taking off much as the telephone did – people just want to connect. In many ways, blogging is not so much a new enabling technology, but a technology that has reduced the barriers thrown up by previous technologies and business models.

CSTD Learning Innovations Symposium

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For the first time, the Canadian Society for Training & Development (CSTD) will be holding its Symposium outside of Ontario. The 2005 Learning Innovations Symposium will be held in Fredericton on 16 & 17 May. We expect an intimate gathering of about 200 attendees and another 200 or so for the live webcasts. The event will be digitally archived. The host agency is LearnNB, of which I’m a member and I will be presenting, with my colleague Albert Lejeune, two sessions, one French & one English, on a case study of a healthcare project that we did with my partner company, Mancomm Performance.

Apprentissage et communautique en services de santé
En 2003-2004, l’équipe Mancomm Performance a collaboré avec le Centre hospitalier Pierre-Le Gardeur (Lachenaie, QC), à  la mise en place d’un cours en ligne pour les infirmières portant sur l’approche McGill, ainsi qu’à  la création de communautés de praticiens. Depuis l’analyse de la performance au travail jusqu’à  la livraison sur des plateformes MOODLE et MAMBO (logiciels libres), l’équipe a travaillé étroitement avec le personnel hospitalier au moyen d’ontologies de domaine. Dans cette séance, vous allez :

  • Apprendre comment faire une analyse de performance avant de recommander l’apprentissage en ligne
  • Comprendre l’importance des ontologies dans la création des bases de connaissances.
  • Comprendre les bénéfices des logiciels libres pour le support à  la performance.
  • Comprendre la méthodologie, DECLICK, utilisée par l’équipe.


eLearning and Communities of Practice in Healthcare

During 2003 to 2004, Mancomm Performance Inc worked with the Pierre LeGardeur Hospital in the Montreal area to implement online learning for nurses as they adopted the new McGill nursing care methodology, as well as the creation of virtual communities of practice for social workers. From the initial performance analyses conducted on the hospital wards, to the implementation of the open source Moodle and Mambo technology systems, the consultants worked closely with the hospital staff in the development of their knowledge base, using domain ontologies.

  • Learn about the need to conduct a performance analysis prior to recommending any e-learning intervention
  • Learn how ontologies can help with the creation of shared professional knowledge bases
  • Learn about the benefits of using open source software for workplace performance support
  • Learn about the DECLICK methodology developed by the Mancomm team

Other guests include Clark Aldrich, Jay Cross and Stephen Downes. The price is very reasonable [as low as $(CA) 299 or $(US)247] and you can get a discount on CSTD membership as well. Hope to see you there.

From the CBO to the Suits

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Chris Locke, co-author of The Cluetrain Mainfesto and Chief Blogging Officer gives this latest advice on corporate blogging:

Moreover, nota bene, I’d like to not-so-humbly hint to all the suits out there in CorporateLand who are wondering how they’re going to "leverage" blogging in "their operations" that they should be paying close attention to what’s going on just beneath the radar here on CBO. Those aren’t Chinese subs, you fools! They’re potential customers. But if you create blogs that don’t tell stories, aren’t the least bit funny or irreverent, but only read like thinly disguised advertising copy, then those potential customers are going to treat you like Chinese subs — and send Tomahawk missiles straight up your RSS.

Ya gotta read the whole post though (note to self – get funnier).