Technology

information & communication technology

Conference on Engaging in Open Source

by

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

by

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

by

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

Giving it away

by

In the April edition of Business 2.0 (requires paid subscription) there is an interesting article, "The Great Giveaway", about Amazon, Google and eBay, as they open up their data for others to create innovative web applications and services. The basic realization is that one company alone cannot follow all of the innovation possibilities, so let’s open it up for other developers to expand the potential of our platform. Though not for all kinds of business, opening up some of the data is a growing phenomenon:

Eric von Hippel, a business professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, explains those old rules: "We come from a culture where if you invested in it, you kept it. That was your competitive advantage." The rise of open-source software certainly challenged that notion. The rise of open data and Web services goes even further, holding out the promise of automating the links between online businesses. In geek-speak, such links are known as application programming interfaces, or APIs, through which more and more companies are revealing their vital data. As Vermeulen says, "Those that succeed have to think about removing walls instead of putting them up."

Opening up the data has spawned new companies, such as ScoutPal, which lets you check the price of Amazon’s merchandise, via your cellphone, as you shop for bargains off the Net. The service is particularly aimed at used book buyers who need to know the current market value of the books they wish to buy.

Update: If you would like to dig deeper into API’s and how they are the HTML of Web 2.0 (lots of acronyms there), then go to Seth Goldstein’s post:

As of 2005, the Internet has replaced the desktop PC as the primary platform for APIs. Unlike Microsoft and the desktop, however, nobody controls the web as a platform; although certain companies do oversee enormous pools of user data and have the opportunity to direct such traffic as they see fit. The talk of Google and Yahoo! (and now IAC) as web platforms center around their ability to recycle users through complex interconnecting networks of search, email, dating, travel, shopping, local services and more. This is the web version of the gated AOL community circa 1996. Ironically, AOL is now desperately racing to open their proprietary (Rainman) environment to a public web site (AOL.com) before Yahoo! fully eclipses its relevancy.

Google ups the ante

by

I just noticed that my free Gmail account now gives me 1223 MB of space – and it’s increasing every second – I now have 1224 MB. I guess that I really don’t have to worry about running out of space. So why does Aliant only provide me with 10 MB for my $40 per month?

“What do knowledge workers want?”

by

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

by

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

by

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.