When I discuss the basics of personal knowledge management on the Web I usually suggest starting with a Feed Aggregator (like Bloglines) and a Social Bookmark service (like Ma.gnolia or del.icio.us). Using these two tools, you can manage the streams of information that flow by and mark items of note for future reference and sharing.
One [...]
Filed under: Informal Learning | 3 Comments »
Dave Pollard shows how disfunctional relationships in a “crooked broker society” create systems that are not fit for meaningful human life.
In each industry, an Exploiter oppresses a Desperate Supplier. This unbalanced relationship is reinforced by a Procurer who in turn gouges an Addicted Buyer. Dave’s graphic shows several examples:
So what about public education?
Are teachers [...]
Filed under: Learning | 6 Comments »
World Intellectual Property Day has become little more than a lobbyist day with creators, users, and the facts once again getting lost in the process.
Read the rest of Michael Geist’s commentary on WIP Day in Canada.
On the bright side, there is Creative Commons as a counterbalance to vested corporate interests:
In sum, the Creative Commons toolset [...]
Filed under: OpenSource, Work | No Comments »
If you pit a good performer against a bad system, the system will win almost every time.
This quote from Geary Rummler and Alan Brache in Improving Performance, sums up many of the symptoms of hierarchial systems, whether they be schools, businesses or prisons.
I believe that the great work to be done at the [...]
Filed under: Performance Improvement | 2 Comments »
The Future of Work has an article on distributed work zones - Zevillage in Normandy and Hidden Tech in Massachusetts. These zones offer a sense of local community to freelancers and micro-entrepreneurs. Zevillage is unique in France in that it is the only rural area with high speed Internet access, something that is available [...]
Filed under: Commons, Work | 2 Comments »
Richard Florida writes that Toyota has now surpassed GM as North America’s largest automobile manufacturer, and says that it was due to better systems and better management:
The problem has long had one source: management. Oh, they have had their excuses. High wages, recalcitrant unions, pensions and healthcare. Nonsense. Toyota, Honda and other Japanese companies showed [...]
Filed under: Work | No Comments »
Sara Bennett has posted a guest article that looks at how much discretionary time is available for homework in the average student’s day.
I’d like to build on this argument and look at the research behind it, because I think that it is about time that we demand that our public educational practices be based on [...]
Filed under: Learning | 3 Comments »
Monday, April 23rd, is World Book and Copyright Day, and according to the Director General of UNESCO:
Much has also been said about the book as the driving force behind a wide array of income-generating activities and about the role of the book within today’s knowledge economies as an instrument for learning, sharing and updating knowledge. [...]
Filed under: Communities, Technology, Work | 2 Comments »
I knew that sooner or later Google would get into the synchronous web-conferencing business. They just announced the purchase of Marratech, which is in my opinion one of the best web conferencing products out there. And on top of that, it was built in Sweden, not Silicon Valley, and designed by a Canadian [félicitations, Serge].
I’ve [...]
Filed under: Technology | 5 Comments »
Thinking about working for yourself? I made the move four years ago and don’t regret it, though working for yourself isn’t easy, it’s just a lot more free. Not as in free beer, but more like free to choose.
If you’re thinking about working on your own, my first recommendation is Dan Pink’s Free Agent Nation. [...]
Filed under: Work | 3 Comments »
