The following opinion article was published this weekend in local newspapers — Telegraph Journal, Times & Transcript, & Daily Gleaner. Education changes: ‘like fixing a plane in mid-flight’ By Harold Jarche Politicians constantly tinker with our public education system because it is designed without a solid foundation, just a series of cobbled-together initiatives based on whatever was… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Democracy
arming ourselves
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published a recent issue on misinformation and disinformation in Canada. Here are some of the highlights. Disinformation: New tools, same poison Before it was called public relations, it was called propaganda. Many of the people who built the modern PR industry got their start in the Committee on Public… Read more »
the tragedy of stories
What is the Tragedy of the Commons? In economics and in an ecological context, the tragedy of the commons is a situation in which individual users, who have open access to a resource unhampered by shared social structures or formal rules that govern access and use, act independently according to their own self-interest and, contrary… Read more »
countering the populist narrative
Being a knowledge catalyst means taking the time to add value to your knowledge. One way is to simplify what you know. Make your work human understandable. Speak in non-geek terms. If experts do not do this they will become surrounded by less informed people over time. This has become evident over the course of… Read more »
better stories for a better world
“Social scientists have identified at least three major forces that collectively bind together successful democracies: social capital (extensive social networks with high levels of trust), strong institutions, and shared stories. Social media has weakened all three. To see how, we must understand how social media changed over time—and especially in the several years following.” —The… Read more »
set an example or leave the building
Leadership by example has been a continuous theme here. 2008 — Wrong Medium, No Message — You have to understand what it’s like to be a node in a social network and that there is almost nothing like it in the industrial workplace or school system to prepare you for this. The basic premise is… Read more »
Dee Hock 1929-2022
Dee Hock, founder and CEO of VISA, died last week at the age of 93. VISA’s success was based on its chaordic structure. chaordic [kay-ordʹ-ic], adj., fr. E. chaos and order. 1. The behavior of any self-organizing, self-governing, organ, organization, or system that harmoniously exhibits characteristics of both order and chaos. 2. Patterned by chaos… Read more »
stupid is as stupid does
Three years ago, in confronting the post-truth machines, I wrote that we cannot let the algorithmic overlords control the conversation. Education on the nature of disinformation is essential. This is what new media literacy should focus on, not just understanding the latest tools and platforms. Meanwhile, in Canada, we observe that conspiracy theories abound in… Read more »
DYOR
For over two years we have increasingly seen this term in social and mainstream media — Do Your Own Research (DYOR). “The words imply a fundamental distrust in authority, and thus a shift to complete self-reliance. In the case of crypto, where there may be rewards but there are definitely massive risks, you should want… Read more »
passivity makes no sense
Last year I wrote that this pandemic has become a crisis in network leadership because understanding what domain of complexity we are dealing with is now an essential requirement for decision-makers. At its outbreak the pandemic was chaotic and required immediate action. Developing vaccines went from complex to complicated. Dealing with people and how various groups… Read more »
Starts 6 February 2023
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