http://martin.cleaver.org "Ideas are like Raindrops!" Martin on Web 2.0, Wiki, Conceptmapping, Middleware and Organisations Fri, 09 May 2008 02:17:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's Toronto Wiki Tuesday time! Continuing our 2008 Toronto Wiki Tuesday Guest Speaker Series, Vanessa Peters (PhD Candidate, OISE) will lead discussions next Tuesday at Toronto Wiki Tuesday at another new location, GROUNDHOG PUB. http://www.torontowikituesdays.com/twiki/bin/view/TorontoWikiTuesdays/WikisInEducationMay2008 Here's Vanessa's description: In this meeting I will discuss a new wiki-based scripted activity that was created for secondary school biology ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/05/08/toronto-wiki-tuesdays-wikis-in-education-may-2008/ Toronto's tech sector is on fire! When I first arrived in Toronto in 2004 I found very little in the way of Tech community. I was told that the Dot Com Crash had pretty much annihilated every shred of enthusiasm this city had left to offer. Today, in 2008, there's no ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/04/29/tonights-toronto-tech-tuesday-event-madness/ You may have forgotten, or simply not know, Canada has reached the crunch point in deciding whether the Canadian ISPs should be allowed to govern what type of traffic is sent over their wires. Last year I commented: Legal precedent states that your ISP is a Common Carrier. This means that ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/04/04/canadian-net-neutrality-cease-and-desist-to-bell-canada/ What's being presented and about our speaker: As part of the 2008 Toronto Wiki Tuesday Guest Speaker Series, Adrian Fritsch (Software Consultant and founder of debatum.org) will lead discussions at Toronto Wiki Tuesday at Epicure Cafe, Here's Adrian's event description: What: Toronto Wiki Tuesdays: using Wikis to Debate ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/04/03/tues-8th-april-using-wiki-to-debate-epicure-cafe-toronto/ From the team at Avaaz: Dear friends, In just 7 days over 1 million of us have signed the petition supporting human rights and dialogue in Tibet - the fastest growing internet petition in history! After decades of injustice, the Tibetan people are crying out to the world for change, and the ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/27/7-days-1m-signatures-petition-supporting-human-rights-and-dialogue-in-tibet/ In the same week, Bell and Rogers have hit the Canadian public hard, imposing limits on how we use the internet. DSL: Not only has Bell imposed this on their own customers but also on their wholesale resellers, organisations such as Teksavvy, who they have started traffic-shaping, cutting off ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/27/collusion-from-canadas-internet-service-providers/ Below is a copy of an email I sent to Wordpress Pro mailing list addressing the dynamic between information stored in a wiki and knowledge spurred on by conversations in a forum. In it I make recommendations as to why and how to link the two assuming that the community ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/27/forums-and-wikis-providing-conversation-knowledge-linkage-for-wordpress-mu/ Feedwordpress is a mechanism for automating syndication of blog entries from one blog to another. I use this alongside WordpressMU to power the blogs at http://www.wikiconsulting.com Feedwordpress is documented at http://projects.radgeek.com/feedwordpress/ and is run by the incredibly busy Charles Johnson (RadGeek). I think it would be better if Charles put a ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/25/feedwordpress-wiki-for-users-contributions/ A bit of news - I've been asked to be on committee to hold the position of Chair for Demos and Posters at WikiSym 2008 in Portugal this September. This is great as I'll not only see breaking ideas as they happen around the world, but also be responsible to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/05/wikisym2008-im-chair-for-demos-and-posters/ Some of you may have noticed on the upcoming page that March's date for Toronto Wiki Tuesday was preliminary, due to a schedule clash on my diary. I'm settling on the 2nd Tuesday of the month whereever possible, making Toronto Wiki Tuesday on the 2nd weekday of the 2nd week ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/03/03/toronto-wiki-tuesdays-march-april-and-onward-2008/ Eeepc user? Take a look at these. http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/04/3m-to-showcase-a-micro-projector-for-handheld-devices-at-ces/ http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/3032/samsung-mbp-100-microprojector/ Fancy that, using just a full-size roll out keyboard, a 32GB SD card and a pocketsize projector capable of a 1m+ picture, you'd end up with full sized facilities in an ever-so lightweight and tiny 9" bag. I suppose though, with a roll-out keyboard and ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/02/29/microprojector-eeepc-a-fully-maxi-micro/ At PodCamp Toronto yesterday I sat next to someone who tried to comment on my blog. It failed! I've fixed it up (it broke after an "upgrade" last year). Please email me if you notice it fail. http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/02/25/blog-fixes/ If you are in Vancouver this weekend, check out Moose Camp 2008 At 11:45 PST I'll be on their Ask The Expert panel answering questions your about wikis. I'll actually be in Toronto, attending PodCampToronto at the time, but will nip out to do a video webcast. http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/02/22/im-virtually-at-moosecamp-vancouver-for-ask-the-expert/ All credit goes to Andrew Butkus and the fabulous efforts of the WINE project (which allows some Windows software to function on the Linux Operating System). Anyhow check out on http://www.slingcommunity.com/group/discussion/26840/Slingplayer-Linux-Install-Script-1.0b/ I just love this eeepc! PS. If you think that slingplayer on the eeepc is ridiculous, check out this effort to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/02/15/slingplayer-running-on-my-linux-eeepc/ My congratulations go to Connie Crosby for her talk on Wikis in Legal Practices (Do Wikis belong in Law Firms) Slides here Despite howling winds driving a blizzard conditions and a late change of venue, 16 people successfully ventured toInsomnia on Bloor and Bathurst. My thanks to Marc Laporte, who was ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/02/15/wikis-in-legal-practices-toronto-wiki-tuesday-feb-2008/ Last month's Toronto Wiki Tuesday marked a turning point. For the next 3 months in 2008 we have speakers lined up! To date I have usually lead a conversation based on my work with clients but I much prefer to not have to be center-stage all of the time. Talks ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/01/23/toronto-wiki-tuesdays-feb-mar-april/ The Slingbox is a device that takes a TV signal and placeshifts it over the internet to a computer running the Slingbox Player. For some reason Slingmedia has no Linux version and, bafflingly, is silent on the prospect of one. (Though I did see it acknowledged on SlingMedia's Where Should ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/01/23/so-no-slingbox-for-linux-but-how-about-a-vm-for-the-wine-install/ Technology marches on, smaller, faster, cheaper. This is especially pertinant at the ultralight end of laptops. My Asus EeePC is a diminutive (7") laptop running Xandros, a windows-look-alike version of Debian Linix, had a 4GB solid state drive, built in wifi and webcam. The cheaper ones (surf models) don't have webcams. ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/01/10/i-bought-an-eeepc-for-the-road/ A company lives and dies by its ability to sustain its existance. Nothing is more important than knowing where you are in order to make prudent decisions. My XP laptop (an IBM X30) died last month. As the data was backed up this was not catastrophic disaster in itself. I'd ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/01/10/running-my-accounting-systems-under-vmware/ My trusty laptop (an IBM X30) died a few weeks back. My data is fine but there's something very unstable about the machine itself. After almost 5 years of intensive use, a survival from someone spilling coffee over it when I first came to Canada, and having accompianed me on ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2008/01/04/a-new-desktop-pc-for-virtualisation-osx86-and-the-new-year/ Toronto Wiki Tuesdays got a brief mention in today's National Post ‘‘I will be heading to Rower's Pub to this month's Toronto Wiki Tuesday, Toronto's dedicated Wiki event. We've had some great topics, talking about how using a wiki efficiently creates knowledge, how we can use them to couple thinking ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/12/18/toronto-wiki-tuesday-mentioned-in-canadas-national-post/ I'm just going to give a quick mention for Onaswarm, a product of Toronto firm BlogMatrix, and run by my friend David Janes. The web has seen a plethora of sites become platforms, each site now holding some fragment of our digital lives. From that stems a problem: many of us ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/12/03/quick-plug-for-onaswarmcom/ Shove over Rogers, Bell and Telus. I've been long griping about the Canadian Telcos and their stupid, exorbitant data rates: [Canadian oligopolistic Telcos] will only voluntarily drop their prices if they thought that they'd make more money by doing so. Their duty is to please their shareholders, not the public, though they ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/12/03/wirelessnorthca-launches-with-news-of-the-opening-of-the-canadian-telco-market/ I have a PS3 that I "won" for talking at Office 2.0. I don't really play games - no spare time. And their's no emulator to let the PS3 run Wii games, yet. So what do I use the PS3 for? Running Yellow Dog Linux as a general purpose ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/11/22/external-usb-video-card-for-ps3-rsx-workaround/ It's apparently not sufficiently well known that I am available for speaking engagements. Let's see if we can change that ;) Here are some recent talks: Professional Administrator's Forum - Aug 16 2007 (Private) Office 2.0, San Francisco - Sep 5 (Public) McMaster University - Wikis and Social Software as it applies to Knowledge ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/11/16/available-for-speaking-engagements/ I'll be giving a short talk at Social Networking night at Society of Internet Professionals on Weds 28th Nov, starting 6pm. I'll discuss how wikis and related technologies work as open intranets and extranets, and how Social Networking techniques have and can been applied to wikis. Their event will be at ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/11/16/society-of-internet-professionals-talk-weds-28th-nov-2007/ I arrived last night in Montreal for the Wiki Symposium at OOPSLA after a brief trip to the UK. http://ws2007.wikisym.org/space/start is the wiki. Come join us on IRC channel #wikisym on freenode.net. I'll be running an Open Space session on http://WikiConsulting.com/ looking to hear how to quickly add value to our field. Today ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/10/22/i-am-at-wikisym-in-montreal/ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071010.WBcyberia20071010144751/WBStory/WBcyberia The reason Rogers is tight-lipped about why it hasn't struck a deal to bring Apple's iPhone into Canada is because it would involve an embarrassing admission: To make the iPhone financially attractive, Rogers would have to cut the rates it charges its customers for data. And what company wants to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/10/12/rogers-bringing-the-iphone-to-canada-oh-that-would-mean-competing/ Wordpress 2.0 introduced a mechanism for programmers and plugin authors to schedule programmatic tasks to be run at designated times in the future. Glenn Slaven in his article Timing Is Everything does a great job of describing how this works. (Sadly, Wordpress's convention is that people write Wordpress documentation to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/22/pseudo-cron-dashboard-display-for-wordpress/ I found it ironic that my cease and desist email to idatecorp re: quetchup failed. Maybe they are beyond hope? Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: privacy@idatecorp.com Technical details of permanent failure: PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 13): 550 : Recipient address rejected: User unknown in local recipient table That said, ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/10/idatecorp-quetchup-doesnt-address-privacy/ Further to my Quetchup blog post on Saturday, I sent this morning: To: privacy@idatecorp.com CC: http://www.stauber.com/lawoffices/ Dear iDateCorp,I would just like to point out that the actions of your website quetchup.com to hijack the address books of your users and use the entries to falsify further invitations is:1) a violation of decency2) theft3) ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/10/cease-and-desist-idatecorp/ I received an invite this morning from a system called Quechup from someone I met yesterday at Office 2.0. Luckily, Luis Suarez aka elsua had twittered it negatively, so I was very cautious. To quote Dwight Silverman: If you get an invitation from a friend inviting you to join a social networking ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/08/quechup-smells-phishy-stay-away-idatecorp-advisors-get-a-face-full/ What is the Future of Work using Enterprise 2.0 technologies? It's the wrong vision to take today's apps from the desktop and put them out to the web. Instead, innovation will be from finding new simple apps that do new, different things. You have to look at the value proposition: reduce costs, ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/06/snippets-from-office-20-opening-panel-on-the-use-of-office-20-suite-of-products/ Looking back on my blog writing tool, I have something like 50 unsent posts, and that's after I've deleted those I'll never want to share. Therefore, I'll pushing for shorter posts, especially when reporting events such as Conferences. http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/06/shorter-posts/ Michael Arrington (Techcrunch) reports: Google may finally be preparing to re-launch wiki service Jotspot, nearly a year after it acquired the company. Google acquired JotSpot last year, bringing it into it's over widening portfolio of office-related services. Jotspot was not only a decent wiki, it contained a veritable suite of groupware features ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/04/jotspot-prepares-for-relaunch-as-google-wiki/ I've accepted an invite to speak on two panels (Thurs-Fri) at Office 2.0 in San Francisco, California this week: Cultural and Technology in Enterprise 2.0 rollouts (hosted by Jevon MacDonald). This will explore the cultural nuances related to designing, developing and deploying Social Software in the Enterprise. Being a wiki kind of ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/09/02/im-speaking-at-office20-on-mindmapping-and-culture-of-enterprise-20/ Hi all. Just a quick note that I am in the UK on the road visiting family (my sister's wedding, congrats Sally & Stu) & friends and so am not reading email or checking voicemail in the meantime. I'll be back in Canada on the15th and presenting on the ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/08/04/im-on-vacation-back-17th/ Last night was http://barcamp.org/VizThinkToronto4 "Concept Mapping"- presented by David Gelb of York University, Michael Jones from Sheridan College and myself. (Sorry, for all the promotion we did with my pause in blogging I forgot to blog about it). At the present count there are some 84 pictures of the event on ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/07/18/last-nights-vizthinktoronto4-conceptmapping/ Just a quick note to declare my continued existence. ;) I've been busy under on a client project, which is now complete. I am now building my new company website, Blended Perspectives Inc. where I'm continuing to do my Wiki Consulting work. I've also been constructing two other public facing sites... more ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/07/16/i-am-still-alive/ Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) wants to double charge for the internet Many ordinary internet users are unaware: there's a war being fought by the net savvy for everyone's right to get to the internet. Net Neutrality centers on the argument that: Everyone pays for their own Internet connection.Google is paying lots ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/04/21/net-neutrality-canada-site-taken-down-your-internet-service-provider-wants-to-double-charge-for-the-internet/ Would you be happier on a Mobile Virtual Operator's network? Given I am currently on Rogers, and the sort of service I would pay extra for (mobile data) is just a rip off, I'm looking at other options, and scaling back my ambitions. My contract with Rogers is up in about ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/04/17/would-you-be-happier-on-a-mobile-virtual-operators-network/ In the same the theme as my posting Rogers: 1.124 mb? That will be $57.55 please, my friend Thomas Purves just posted the above stark graphic contrasting the rates people living in Canada pay compared to others around the world. In the following I summarize an investigation of my own ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/04/09/the-stupidity-of-canadian-telcos-with-their-exhoribitant-data-rates/ 10.2c Imagery and recall The Buzan Centre promotes many memory aiding techniques. The underlying theme to these systems is to incorporate the creative and logical functions of the brain. By synthesising informational, perhaps abstract facts with experiences we are able to commit them to memory. This is related to an issue ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/28/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-102c-imagery-and-recall/ Imagery and recall To explain point 9 of Figure 2-1, we note that a principle law of Mind Mapping is to emphasise. [p. 97, The Mind Map Book] advises 'Always use a central image' and 'Use images throughout your Mind Map'. The justification for this is simple: "While both words and pictures ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/26/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-102b-imagery-and-recall/ 2.10.1 Omitting background words - a key principle in the Mind Mapping Technique An important principle in Mind Mapping is the deliberate omission of the many background words; these are simply not needed because the purpose of these words in the text would be to imply structure. The mind map has ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/23/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-101-omitting-background-words-%e2%80%93-a-key-principle-in-the-mind-mapping-technique/ 2.10Projection onto a representation space What is included on a map is the choice of the map-maker. Several sources [NOM, LTL] indicate that any transformation of reality into a symbolic representation is a PROJECTION. This transformation often acts as an abstraction, from a person's particular viewpoint and indeed, may distort facts ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/22/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-9-explicit-appearance-2/ 2.9 Explicit appearance A map's value is gained from its explicit appearance. It is open to gestalt feeling and can be usefully viewed in part or as a whole, from varying distances and it can be addressed from any starting point; the same is simply not true of a piece of ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/20/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-9-explicit-appearance/ In terms of transit, one of the things that shocked me most when I moved to Toronto was the lack of suburban railways, especially compared to London, England and Melbourne, Australia, two places I've to date spent much of my working life. Toronto has corridors already for trains, use these for ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/20/why-dont-torontos-go-trains-stop-inside-the-city/ 2.8 Structure more than content The key word is structure. Korzybski concluded that the map was so useful simply because it retains the structure of the territory that it mimics. Whatever the medium for the target representation, reality has to be translated in order to fit it onto a representation, if ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/18/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-8-structure-more-than-content/ 2.7 Graphical representations Graphical representations, and in particular, maps, are a rich topic for cognitive research: Each person carries with him his cognitive field as a map of the world. He responds not to the world, but to the map. When he receives the stimulus of a communication, the meaning it has ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/16/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-6-graphical-representations/ Spatial world and analogy Adult humans have had plenty of practice in mentally modelling space and, because of this, we become adept at recognising patterns in it. So when we are presented with a conceptual instead of spatial problem, it can be both advantageous and natural for us to draw analogy ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/14/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-6-spatial-world-and-analogy/ Tonight at Toronto Wiki Tuesday we will begin with a quick talk about IBM's QEDWiki, starting with a short video clip. We'll question how IBM have extended the concept of a wiki as a mashup of content to wiki as a mashup of data & content and how this relates to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/13/toronto-wiki-tuesday-march-meeting/ Rogers just credited me back the $57.55 they charged me today for just over 1 MB of data on my phone: I didn't have a plan for data but, ouch. I'm not going to judge Rogers for this, but, to quote my friends: what a cash grab.. yikes and: holy x*#@ And I said to customer service: I ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/12/rogers-1124-mb-that-will-be-5755-please/ Two computer systems that people waiting to immigrate to Canada are affected by: I found http://infosource.gc.ca/inst/imc/fed05_e.asp which says: Thanks to Gwenna for mentioning this, Field Operations Support System (FOSS) Description: The FOSS database is a central repository of information on all persons who have been, may be or are wanted to be seen ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/12/computer-systems-used-by-canadian-immigration-foss-and-caips/ Text Language, especially its permanent textual form, is a format that virtually every human has the ability to use and is undeniably powerful, emotive and expressive. Carefully selected, words can ring an air of stark truth and clarity, and can drive a deep understanding directly into the human subconscious. However to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/10/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-5-text/ Since 2004, the terms Social Media, "Web 2.0" and The Architecture of Participation, have been about getting the masses to provide full engagement, and are taking leaps and bounds as a dominant means to put publishing on the web into the hands of the common public. Brought into an Enterprise context, ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/09/the-military-believes-in-edge-organizations-your-firm-should-believe-in-enterprise-20/ 2.4 Natural conception of space The extent of our experience thus dictates an arbitrary limit on the dimensionality that we understand. However, there is no such limit on the complexity of relationships between objects. It is these relationships that dictate the pattern of a system that we seek to comprehend, and ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/08/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-4-natural-conception-of-space/ I am delighted to announce, I'll be a speaker at Webcom Toronto, Interactive Communications and Web 2.0 April 10th-12th, 2007. For the First Time in Toronto... Webcom is aimed at Communication Professionals, Intranet and Internet developers and managers, IT project managers, directors and vice-presidents.Communications, Human Resources and IT departments in Public and ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/08/webcom-toronto-2007-interactive-communications-and-web-20/ Wikis - Making Sense out of a House of Shards(c) Martin@Cleaver.org2 December 2004 A wiki can be a posting board, knowledge base, project tracker, photo album, and discussion forum. It's all of these, yet none alone does it justice. Even for the most experienced, a Wiki can be infuriatingly difficult to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/07/wikis-%e2%80%93-making-sense-out-of-a-house-of-shards-2004/ 2.3On Space The environment or "milieu" that we live in is partly composed of a space and as such, some of the earliest things that we need to describe during childhood exist in a spatial field. We become accustomed to understanding the spatial dimensions and become experienced at describing them. Survival, ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/07/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-2-on-space/ I had a great time (and many scotches) last night at the Robbie Burns Society of Toronto Here's a little video clip, typical of the singing and joking, taken with my Treo and uploaded to YouTube. http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/07/last-night-at-the-scottish-robbie-burns-society-of-toronto/ Quick update: it's clear that the London office has started processing my visa application! They returned this yesterday... My status on e-client is unchanged... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/07/canadian-high-commission-heres-your-pictures-back/ Note: I no longer work with Helix Commerce. Some of my readers will know me from presenting with Bill Ives at KMWorld on the topic of Blogs and Wikis. Well, Bill, Cindy and I have teamed with IBM to provide a training version for corporations and the public. Here's an extract ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/06/helix-commerce-and-ibm-blogs-and-wikis-in-business/ http://weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/forecast/trends_graph_e.html?yyz&unit=m reported Toronto weather this morning: The funny thing is, the place I felt coldest living was in Melbourne, Australia while an MBA student. Why? Well, our house there had practically no insulation and really poor heating. http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/06/a-cold-cold-morning-22c-for-toronto-in-march/ I met Tari Akpodiete at PodCamp Toronto 2007 a couple of weeks back. Tari was giving talks about a host of things, one talk (videocast) I attended was about MindMapping and Getting Things Done. Like me, it seems that Tari also subscribes to Giveaway of the Day. But, unlike me ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/06/conceptdraw-for-free-only-today/ Verna Allee is a leading light in the discipline of Knowledge Management, having built a solid methodology, a steady practice and tools (some open source), around the notion of Value Networks for modeling Enterprises as Living Systems. Verna Allee and Oliver Schwabe are visiting The Toronto Value Networks Cluster http://www.vncluster.com/YYZ.htm at ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/06/value-networks-cluster-toronto-march-23rd/ There was another slide in Software as a Service (SaaS) for Small to Medium sized Businesses ( PDF), one that warrants a separate posting: The story here is about business webs, and how taking one SaaS service, such as Salesforce.com can lead to adoption of another, compatible, integrated service. Salesforce.com is ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/05/software-as-a-service-leads-to-value-networks/ 2.2 Mental Models People construct internal representations, called mental models, of the situation in the world that they want to reason about and then change those models, in ways corresponding to the ways the world can change, to try to find solutions to their problems. [Mind in Action, p 68] The creative ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/05/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-2-mental-models/ I just finished listening to Software as a Service (SaaS) for SMBs Two slides were particularly prominent for me: This one - which talked about the propensity of a function to be served from outside the walls of the business (Yellow marking adoption this year). What struck me about this is no ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/05/propensity-of-saas-adoption-and-the-pitfalls-of-traditional-desktop-management/ In http://socialwrite.com/2007/02/12/short-report-from-fastforward07/ Jevon said: People tried on several occasions that this era is just Knowledge Management repackaged. I feel like I am missing something drastic here. The change now goes deeper, has immediate impact and is focused on PEOPLE, not knowledge. Rebuttal needs work. "Knowledge Management" has been around since about 1988. ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/04/knowledge-management-revisited-enterprise-20/ 2. Background Investigations "It is in symbolic, visual terms that the designer ultimately realises his perceptions and experiences; and it is in the world of symbols that man lives. The symbol is thus the common language between the artist and spectator" Brian Lawson - How Designers Think In this chapter, we survey ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/02/conceptmapping-thesis-chapter-2-part-1/ In the BBC news today: Scientists say rising temperatures are warming the polar regions faster than the rest of the planet. One of the key questions that scientists will hope the research effort will shed new light on is the potential rise in sea level caused by melting of ice sheets in ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/03/01/denmark-boston-new-york-bangladesh-first-hit-by-global-warming/ Chapter 1: Language, maps, communication and memory. "The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget!" "You will, though," the Queen said, "if you don't make a memorandum of it." Lewis Carroll ( 1832-98 ) - Through the looking glass (1872) To exchange thoughts is a fundamental need ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/02/28/chapter-1-language-maps-communication-and-memory/ Abstract When referring to a problem, we often speak of a space in which the problem's parts exist. This allows us to speak metaphorically and to apply knowledge constructed in a given field to be useful in a less familiar one. Concepts are universally separate from representation, yet the representation often subtly ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/02/28/my-msc-thesis-on-concept-mapping/ I worked for Arthur Andersen a few years ago, specializing in systems integration using Middleware platforms such as TIBCO, IBM WebSphere MQSeries, Vitria and SeeBeyond. Since 2001 I shifted my focus from systems integration technologies to Knowledge Management integration strategy (more on that shift in a later post), but I ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/02/13/tibco-could-these-padded-jackets-reduce-ma-insanity/ 40,000 Minds are better than 1: A case analysis of idea management at Bell Canada (Weds 24 Jan, 11:30am-12) Meaghan McKnight and Rex Lee - BELL SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGY Rex and Meaghan from Bell Canada talked through some pretty exciting Enterprise 2.0 internal projects at Bell Canada. The one that got my ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/01/28/mcmaster-congress-enterprise-20-id-ah-at-bell-systems-and-technology/ Okay, with this, my first post of the year, I am back in the blogosphere :) Back in 2003, I studied for 3 months at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management as an MBA exchange student. In that time, I swapped a course so I could study Knowledge Management at ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2007/01/23/mcmaster-word-congress-on-intellectual-capital-and-innovation/ Andrea and I will be away until next Wednesday morning, so I won't be checking mails. Life should return to some normality from that point onward ;) http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/30/am-away-for-the-next-few-days-happy-new-year/ After reading http://www.dslreports.com/archive?c=ca I noted just how badly Rogers, my current ISP, is rated for speed. Further people really complain about Rogers so I assume they've pushed it further and done more extensive comparisons than me. To pick a replacement, here's that DSL report for Canada showing service provider speeds. I ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/30/considering-cogeco-instead-of-rogers/ I just spent a few hours this morning installing, configuring and troubleshooting http://subscribe2.wordpress.com/tag/installation/ The idea is that readers can register and get emailed about certain categories of topic I write about, as many people are not yet using an RSS reader. This would especially be a boon to my friends and ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/22/added-email-subscribe-to-my-wpmu-blog/ Dated 15 December, we just yesterday received our Application to Sponsor confirmation from the Case Processing Centre, Mississauga (CPC-M). (See Canadian Immigration process started... finally!) ( It took about 7 days for the letter to travel 50km. I could have walked it faster, but its the Holiday Season so let's just ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/22/application-forwarded-to-london-england/ Around the start of December http://Palm.com (makers of the Palm Pilot, Palm Treo etc) took their user forums offline, promising they'd be back soon. Now they say we need to wait till early Jan 2007. What's with a company that size taking its forums offline? Minimally I would expect them to ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/21/palm-forums-will-debut-in-early-january/ In gifts-for-the-holidays-small-personal-and-meaningful, my friend Rob gives some great ideas for small and meaningful Holiday Season presents. Since living with Andrea in Canada I have been fully indoctrinated into Secret Santa method of buying just one present for one person in the family. And cards? Well, back home in the UK my mother ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/20/secret-santa-for-snowtime-sanity/ Thanks to Mark Kuznicki and Rob Schaumer who both pointed out my feed was down. As my RSS reader (GreatNews) was failing I got behind in my reading, to the point that I had no way to be alerted that my own feed was down. RSS really does recenter a ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/20/my-rss-now-coming-via-feedburner/ In My Blog Got Me a New Job ex-Ernst & Young Rod Boothby explains how his blog enhances the chances of landing a new job, and how he attributes his job offer to having lowered the risk to potential employers by being seen to be more transparent and open. In ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/18/blogging-for-a-job-in-a-transparent-mass-socialized-world/ It sounds like Socialtext have pulled off masterful feat of technology: taking a web application and making it available offline. Such a goal is really sound: so many of us live in a ever-more mobile world, the frequently disconnected worker is usually excluded from some of the best apps. Take, for ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/15/socialtext-available-offline/ I received a phone call this morning - from Immigration Canada. They've received our application and processed Andrea's request to Sponsor me. They verified that we wanted an Outside Application (Inside Applications are slower) and asked whether we wanted London, UK vs. Buffalo to do the processing. They are working faster ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/15/immigration-process-one-step-beyond/ http://www.olpctalks.com/nicholas_negroponte/negroponte_netevents.html "And would somebody like to guess what the first English word of every kid in that picture is? Yes. Exactly. It's Google. That's their first English word. " At the end of 2007, the worldwide production of [normal] laptops, worldwide, every company that makes something that even approximates a laptop, was ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/14/one-laptop-per-150-million-children/ Brad Neuberg just announced: HyperScope is a high-performance thought processor that enables you to navigate, view, and link to documents in sophisticated ways. It's the brainchild of Doug Engelbart, the inventor of hypertext and the mouse, and is the first step towards his larger vision for an Open HyperdocumentSystem. Hyperscope mocks up ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/13/hyperscope-11-released/ (than the real one) Bringing online what other’s have observed in the past (in addition to what’s available in the here-and-now), and extending one’s reasoning into the knowledge of others (in addition to what one knows themselves) is a key value-add of participating in an online community. Clues from eBay reputation ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/12/there-are-more-clues-available-in-a-virtual-environment/ Innovators & Influencers: From Web 2.0 To Enterprise 2.0 (Digg) http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196602773 Lots of CIOs pay lip service to Enterprise 2.0, the sometimes esoteric movement toward using consumer technologies like blogs and wikis to create a more collaborative business environment. JP Rangaswami not only is driving those Web processes internally as CIO ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/11/wiki-promoting-cio-moves-to-bt-global-services/ I'm off to IBM at Yonge & Steels tomorrow from 2pm till 6pm to give feedback on an IBM Middleware product. I am under contractual obligation to not reveal product details, which at present is not a problem as I don't know any! I suspect it'll be beta testing for ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/11/im-at-ibm-tomorrow-afternoon/ In Tech Boom 2.0: Boom but no bubble?, I highlighted the collaboration centricity of new investments: A new emphasis on social networking and connecting people, rather than e-commerce, which consumers did not trust in 2000. Given the dismal failure of so many KM implementations - which were often poorly thought-out and brittle ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/10/km-20-based-on-social-media-fuels-complexity-managing-complexity-necessitates-new-culture-and-new-leadership-competences/ The Toronto Star carried "Tech bubble 2.0: vive la différence" from DAN FOST of the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE today: "I absolutely think we're in a bubble, but the bubble we're in is very different," said Joe Kraus, Chief Executive Officer of JotSpot, a Web 2.0 [Wiki] company that provides software that ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/10/tech-boom-20-boom-but-no-bubble/ Dave Pollard remarked in his weekly roundup: See How Patients Rate Doctors: It's brand new, but this site allowing North American patients to rate their physicians has great promise. It will be interesting to see if the AMA/CMA try to shut it down. Thanks to my work colleague Carolyn Lonsdale for ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/09/canadian-healthcare-ineffective-and-costly/ Just to amplify Ajaxian's report: Spokeo: Meta Social Networking Category: Showcase, Rails Spokeo combines your friends from MySpace, LiveJournal, Flickr, Youtube, … and 20 other social networks into one destination. It's like Trillian for social networks. The site was developed in Ruby-on-Rails by some Stamford students, and is their first ever web application. ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/09/spokeo-meta-social-networking/ Ian Delany in http://twopointouch.com/2006/12/07/blogging-asia/ offers this insight into the huge variation between adoption of blogging in Asia vs. the Western World: Blogging Asia: A Windows Live Report shows that blogging is already a significant force in Asia. [I] haven't been able to find the original report online, but I've been able ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/09/46-of-online-asia-has-a-blogs-8-of-us-web-users-of-canada/ To: Value-Networks@googlegroups.com From:Andrew.Webster, kingbridgecentre.com Subject:Networks and Collaboration Wow, now that is a ridiculously broad subject line. To begin concisely, I was hoping there may be some good ideas out there for how to use social networking tools as a means to begin conversations virtually and asynchronously before meetings or conferences. I have ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/08/virtual-conferences/ Does your organization communicate effectively? Drawing from the BBC's report on an American police force decision to stop using 10-4 and 10-20 type codewords (I was surprised to hear these are incompatible across different counties), I draw a parallel of how wikis can generate the common linguistic ground needed for ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/07/american-cop-language-confuses-the-force-how-wikis-can-help/ You may have noticed yesterday this site's not displaying the background. This post is in two halves: 1) implications for typical users of Zoundry and Wordpress, and after the (more...) 2) My notes to investigate why this happened. The latter half of this post is more technical. Symptoms: a) the site's ... http://martin.cleaver.org/blog/2006/12/03/zoundry-causing-display-errors-in-my-blog-resolved/