Post to Post

This week is proving to be busier that usual for me, with no time to catch my breath, or thoughts in posts, so it seems. I'd decided to catch up on my post reading, reduce the list on my RSS Reader and do some hard thinking rather than writing. But it doesn’t always work out that way, of course.

I end up commenting on posts on other blogs and writing more there than I would if I’d written a post. That’s how it’s been for me since the weekend.

Share

George Siemens’, Why Groups Fail To Share Information Effectively, was such a post that drew my comment. He picks up on the Psyblog article of the same name.

I recalled Tony Karrer’s post, Reduce Searching start Talking, that prompted my long reply in June, and also Michele Martin’s earlier discussions on homophily.

George’s enviably short post summarises a number of related ideas that get me thinking:

• Failure of (group) interaction to take advantage of the value of critique and debate
• sharing information that will not cause conflict or upset others
• the need for a degree of self-confidence (and a supportive environment) to ensure contrary voices are heard
• group pressure to normalize ideas.

At TCS we have been and are following a series of sessions of appreciative inquiry. These involve staff group discussions where shared ideas, once collated, are ostensibly contributing in some measure to the path of the current restructuring of the organisation.
In the light of all of the above, perhaps you can figure the way my mind’s working right now?

Free

Tony Karrer’s post, Free, picks up on Chris Anderson’s new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, and homes in on the idea that “we value atoms more than bits”.

Tony highlights the theme that content delivered as bits (online, etc) has less value than the equivalent atoms version (printed book, say).

He summarises a number of interesting key questions related to how consumers might contribute to the system and how the effectiveness of networks might best utilise the system.

It bothers me that bits are regarded as being less valuable than atoms. I’d already discovered that within my own family, bits are encouraging time-debts that are unlikely to be repaid, in the form of stocks of never-to-be-viewed TV video recordings, not to say too much about the posts on my RSS Reader that I might never get round to reading – sigh.

Upcoming events

Some free elearning events are coming up, now and till the end of October. Perhaps you might like to contribute to these enriching, free webinars through bits of participation and sharing?

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