It's been an interesting few weeks managing a narrative capture in the UK and Pakistan, interpreting the material and writing the report. I freely admit that I have been moved to tears reading some of the material from refugee camps. 14 year olds taking about the suffering of others, when they face displacement and immanent violence is a sobering experience. The pilot is now complete, and I can catch up on multiple emails and other work which has been ignored under the pressure of a sustained period of 18 hour days. I should also get back into the habit of updating this blog daily.

This week I have been in Wales working on the definition phase of a series of possible pilot projects looking at the impact of Government. More of those in the future if they move forward. For the moment I was reflecting on displacement a sense of Hiraeth that comes on with increasing strength these days. Hiraeth is another of those welsh words, like Cynefin that have no literal translation, the nearest is a sense of longing, a desire to return to the place of your multiple belongings.

Continue reading "Memories" »

We've just had a couple of cancellations on the seminar next week (30th June) so some places are open again. It's a purposefully small group, spending a day understanding the implications for policy and practice of complexity theory. I mix basic teaching with discussing the issues faced by people in the group, so it is a real seminar rather than a lecture or a class. It builds on the HBR article and other material. For those interested you can book here. Given the short notice an introduction by a registered Cognitive Edge practitioner will get you a 15% discount.

I spoke at the the I³conference in Aberdeen this Tuesday. The slides are here with a linked podcast. All in all and enjoyable event and a chance to meet and talk with several old friends and some new ones. The two long train journeys allowed me to catch up with a fair amount of email and get the development wiki into some form of order. The one downside was the normal IT department problem at Universities who insist on allowing web access only, but insist on manual configuration of a proxy server. Net result no email and wasted time. Otherwise an interesting event, with some good contacts to follow up. More tomorrow, or the moment I am getting the slides up for those who were there.

A couple of neat sites came through the twitterverse over the last few days. For Science Fiction fans this interactive display of multiple classics is a delight. Coupled this effective display of your twitter friends (or anyone else's for that matter is not only fun, its also useful. Finally for those who don't follow my tweet feed here are two wonderful remakes of the I'm a mac, I'm a PC Ads. The South Park version is pretty cool, the the transformers is special. Oh, and a really outstanding hotel in Aberdeen, great beds, flat screen tele with a DVD and the best real burger I have had in a hotel anywhere in the world. I travelled up here by train, leaving Pewsey on the 1006 via London and getting to Aberdeen at 2030. First class advance was cheaper than a cheap period return in second class (the absurdity of rail travel in the UK at the moment). I was able to work solidly, with free wifi and increasingly outstanding scenery rolling past by the window. OK it was ten hours, but if I had flown then it would have been six fragmented hours with little work and much hassle.

An interesting email came in from my old friend Karl Wiig this evening. He is looking for a list of competence that nations need to acquire to be successful in the modern age. Now regular readers of this blog will know that I am very dubious about the whole idea of competence as it is currently interpreted. However the question pricked my interest. It links back to an earlier polemic on government to which I owe a more substantial follow up.

Continue reading "A curious question" »

I'm a bit behind (well ten days to be accurate) with tidying up the final set of notes I took during the above conference. Final days of our Children of the World pilot and I've been living off 4 hours sleep a night. However its been worth it, fascinating stuff and I spent a lot of last weekend in tears at some of the stories coming in from refugee camps in Pakistan. Children have a remarkable ethical resilience that we need to draw on. More of that another day, but I should be back to the normal daily post. I'm also at a conference in Aberdeen for the next few days so expect a flurry of blogs if the content is interesting. In the meantime back to KCUK09, and yes I did cheat and changed the date on this entry.

Continue reading "KCUK09 - conference blog 2" »

For those waiting for them the slides and podcast are now loaded. I used the iPod as my Voice Recorder has been lost/stolen so its a biggish file. Focus was on social computing in the context of change and includes the 7 principles of Knowledge Management. Time ran out so I didn't do the last slide. But for those interested this is what I would have said:

Continue reading "KCUK09 - presentation (and the bits I missed)" »

There used to be three big KM conferences every year. KM World over in Santa Clara and then KM Asia and KM Europe both of which were run by the Ark Group.

Continue reading "KCUK09 - conference blog 1" »

Ok their vote was down and it was the lowest ever turnout in the history of European elections, OK the BNP got fewer votes than five years ago, but to be a citizen of a country that can elect two members of the British National Party as its representatives must to any right thinking person be a matter of shame.

Continue reading "Shame" »

Yesterday I drove my daughter to Heathrow at the start of her extended trip to Australia with a side trip to Bali before she finally enters University this October to read Anthropology and History.

Continue reading "Well done Vodaphone (and thanks)" »