Tomorrow is the final meeting of the Deming SIG at the IQA looking at Deming's system of profound knowledge. This will look at Systems and play the beer game. The link with Senge is clear.

I think they could have made larger claims for these meetings. Each of four elements in the system of knowledge has been considered over the year. Maybe there will be no definite conclusion but it has been an interesting project.

I am part way through re-arranging my bookshelves to roughly follow these new categories. Previously they used the structure of the Lancaster course on management learning. This course no longer runs as they now concentrate on leadership. With Deming it seems 'leadership' is in there somewhere but incidentally.

I have bought a couple of books from Amazon. This will help in having a sound basis for another look at things.

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I have read articles about 'mode 2 knowledge' and have an idea what it is about. The actual book seems to confim my impression so far but there is a lot of detail to consider. On the web there are several PDFs that seem consistent with the book and explain the ideas ok. A short one with relevance for management is at

http://www.sses.com/public/events/euram/complete_tracks/managing_and_knowing/van-aken.pdf

Found through Google. This explains a view that most management studies aim at mode 1, although managers trying to learn something would benefit from mode 2.

I think my own project is definitely mode 2 so I am going to stop trying to write as if for mode 1. I think this explains some of the problems with critique etc. The article by Joan van Aken has not got a critique angle on practitioners or 'prescription', just an explanation of academic attitudes to 'Heathrow' types of book such as managers read. I can't help thinking though that Foucault and Habermas are definitely Mode 1 as they appear in the literature.

The New Production of Knowledge Gibbons and others Sage 1994

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A Manager's Guide to Leadership is the latest book from Mike Pedlar, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell. I hope to understand why there is a new emphasis on Leadership. I am still stuck on organisations as such. Somehow the 'learning organisation' proved to be difficult so the Management Learning subject has moved on. My first impression is that this will be a useful book. It includes a Senge quote and the idea of a learning organisation is still included. There is even a positive presentation of the Excellence model and a mention for Dr Deming. Previously 'quality' ideas were seen as outmoded, particularly quality circles. The book is concentrating on personal development but there is an idea of organisation as well. The question of how people learn from quality systems is inside the scope.

McGraw Hill 2004

I don't think Deming is 'prescriptive', he seems less so the more I find out about what he said. Change cannot come from within the system. Well, what can that mean?

Previous post was to test out how to add a photo. seems to work but I'm not sure how. Requires an account with Hello where everything is stored.

The Guardian Education talk is inclusive enough to keep my posts about Aretha
http://educationtalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@ree@.685f0059

Back on topic soon. For example I have aded a question about Arizona to the track on Mode 2 knowledge. I don't really follow how there can be no 'research' when so many people are studying how they work. More than this is happening of course, but some proportion seems to be study blended with real situations.

http://educationtalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@mode2@.685f361f/3

ree test 

During drupa, Anne M. Mulcahy said that Xerox now thinks of IT as big I and little t. So the emphasis is on the information. I hope to find out more about this.

The technology is still in there however. She mentions that the new FreeFlow scanners have five chips but sensibly resists taking up time to explain what each one is for.

Exeter seems to be more connected over time. There is a wi-fi experiment with Freespot that has started in the Southgate Hotel and will soon be on the cathedral green. There is more going on with festivals and conferences. Exeter City Council are supporting music with Vibraphonic. Later in the year there will be Alt-C on learning and a Science Festival. I have done a poster to try to connect some of this. wi-fi at the bottom, learning and organisation at the top, some way apart. I will talk through this over the summer.

I have started a topic on mode2 knowledge at the Guardian. not much response yet

http://educationtalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@mode2@.685f361f/3


Some photos from Network Learning

http://www.learn9.net/nlpix.html

One conclusion from Network Learning is that most of the stuff I work on is definitely mode 2 type knowledge. Not sure I understand this fully but I am beginning to get an idea of how 'mode 1' and 'mode 2' are used by academics. There is still a strong pressure to go for 'research' as mode 1 disciplines, however recent. So 'learning technologists' want to move into educational theory and away from users. Maybe I imagined this but that's how it seems. More next week.

Thinking about Seybold, this will be completely different. The trade show element is part of the base. 'e-learning' is another word for the web. The environment has always depended on the stream of claim,s from companies about new products, even when most people believe they are not yet working.

Comments are working ok so here is a statement that might get feedback.

I have updated the site about eTEN. This is a possible proposal for a project looking at server software for PDF and how this can support learning. At the moment my guess is that things are moving so quickly it would be hard to present a timetable over a couple of years of development.

One of the changes I notice is that at Networked Learning the EQUEL project is based on a fairly positive approach to quality systems. There are other EU projects along similar lines. I think the energy for this is coming from the EU.

Will this mean that 'critique' ideas about quality will get less emphasis? Previously there has seemed to be a block on looking at quality systems. Comment welcome.

another test, comment seems ok

testing for comments

At the Deming meeting on Thursday I hope to check some ideas out during the pauses.

Leadership remains the main issue for people in Lancaster at the Dept of Management Learning. My impression is that Deming emphasised top managment to check they supported the project, not because quality arrived top-down. I have put a message at the Leadership Research Workshop with a link to a conference

http://community.leadershipresearchworkshop.com/index.php?board=15;action=display;threadid=30;start=0

The talk about 'distributed leadership' seems to be moving back to looking at organisations. The 'Learning Organisation' got lost in critique but is still a useful approach, I think.

Next week there is another meeting at the IQA in the series organised by the Deming SIG. Henry Neave will be talking about the beads approach. This should involve quite a lot of activity.

I had meant to update the site at www.learn9.net but will now leave this till after the meeting. The series is intended to cover four aspects of the system of profound knowledge as decscribed in 'The New Economics'. So far there has been psychology - drive out fear- and knowlege, which I tried to work on. Systems may turn up again, the first date slipped by. I think it should be possible to relate the Management Learning approach to this. I hope to have this at least in some sort of form before the Networked Learning conference in April.

The comments made around drupa suggest that there has been a significant change in attitudes about digital technology within the printing industry. After the apparent crash in internet stocks there continued to be some belief that print could continue essentially as it had previously. However, digital technology has continued to have an impact. 'Desk top publishing' from the '80s has taken over many of the functions of pre-press. Photoshop on recent computers can do all that is required for print. InDesign has the typography features that were once missing from DTP. Quark now supports a PDF workflow.

Digital printing now offers quality that compares with litho. There is the possibility of improving consistency in ways that would not be easy to control for litho. The PDF workflows for digital print are now widely used for all forms of print.

Frank Romano has suggested that 20% of print procurement currently involves the web and that this will increase to over 60% during the next three years. (See also more comment on this on another blog on "IPEX2002". This has continued since 2002 and is now mostly about drupa, but the issues relate to IPEX also.

The IPEX2002 blog includes a statement by Christian Gugler, Chairman of PrintCity’s Networking Activity Group. He is aware of changes in the industry and the way that 'networking' links in to other forms of communication. After drupa this will be accepted by most of the people who have visited. This will represent a change on the approach from ten years ago.

The site at learn9.net has been mostly about situations where PDF technology had an impact. This has been difficult for some print companies. Pre-press has had to change since Desktop Publishing to support content originating with the customers for print. These changes might have happened within a formal quality system but are often responses to observing trends with other companies.

In future the site will not be restricted to one approach, around print and formal quality systems. PDF is only one option within the choice of file formats for online content. It has many advantages but cost is often a limiting aspect. So the scope of the site may get wider.

It seems that the impact of technology will now be more disruptive for educational institutions based on print. Universities, schools, and libraries have all developed during the time that print has existed. It may not be obvious how deep the implication is or how much change will be associated with digital technology.

Previous papers have tried to show links between theories about 'learning organisations' and 'quality management systems'. In future there will be more short entries on this blog and updates to the website. For conferences there could be more emphasis on a workshop rather than a paper. One idea would be to look at ideas of a 'community of practice' and then look at how jobs have changed in pre-press / web design , then in libraries and universities.

I am gradually finding more material from EQUEL and other projects looking at quality and e-learning. There is definitely a positive attitude here. The assumption seems to be that it is possible and valid to develop forms of e-learning in higher education.

I still think the work done on 'learning organisations' is relevant. This was during the '90s and seemed to come to an end in the UK. The practical side is difficult but the idea is still worth looking at. I find much work on e-learning has a scope for a particular project without looking at the organisation as a whole.

The 'learning organisation' stream seemed to come to an end during the first 'Management Theory in Practice' conference in Lancaster. 'Critique' was avery strong theme, especially with respect to 'quality'. I'm not sure if this is still widely supported. Some aspects of 'quality' are likley to come up as part of the discussion on e-learning.

Copied from my post at Guardian talk in case you missed it

At BETT I discovered there is quite a lot going on about quality and e-learning. The energy seems to come from the EU. See other topics on new new new universities (Communication? what's that about?) and business (UK quality? just forget about it)

European projects on quality and e-learning
http://elearningeuropa.info

European Quality Observatory
http://www.eqo.info/

QUAL-E-LEARNING
http://www.qual-elearning.net/

SEEL www.seelnet.org/seel/default.htm

SEEQUEL http://www.education-observatories.net/seequel/index

My impression is that "quality" is seen in the UK as an imposition rather than something to work with. However 'world-class' and 'quality' may be linked.

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There is a conference in April where there will be a presentation on EQUEL
http://tecfaseed.unige.ch/equel/equel.php

It will be interesting to see how 'critique' fits into this. Previously some academics have been very negartive about 'quality'.

I have started to get involved in the Guardian talk pages. This started with their PDF beta that seemed to be possible long before they actually announced it. It seems to me that their coverage of the press fails to consider the impact of the web. Roy Greenslade seldom mentions the growth of websites as an explanation for falling broadsheet circulations.

Anyway it seems you can write what you like on the Guardian talk. The 'digital Guardian' site will be public sometime this year with PDF as an option.

I have also posted on 'world-class universities', 'new, new new universities' and 'bluffing your way for a part-time ICT job'. Recently I discovered how to link between topics but it seems to work only sometimes.

Try this
http://educationtalk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@world@.685ebe61/44

By the way, Google stand 10264

Not sure where else to put this. Also not sure if I can lift this much text. From Jerry Pournelle on the Byte site. www.byte.com This is Comdex week and the context for most of my study on quality has been the gradual spread of technology through media such as Byte.

It may be that Comdex 2003 has not much happening in real time and space. Who knows? It has got an agenda and much stuff will relate. Adobe have a link on their events site but no stand as it appears and no speakers. Global Graphics have a stand but they have to try harder. Not much chance of Adobe spending money at Seybold Amsterdam if they think their website covers Comdex.

Maybe this post is part of the learning log as the theory is getting stable enough to cope with some current issues.

Adobe PDF was Byte best in show about 10 years ago, maybe 11. Expect more time warp shifts. Jerry Pournelle may write some new stuff later this week in which case expect a link.

"The last year that BYTE gave the "Best of COMDEX" awards, we gave the Best of Show award to the Linux Pavilion, and several Linux products won technical excellence awards (we presented them with the help of an actress in a penguin suit). The Linux Pavilion was one of the most exciting places at COMDEX that year. This year you could hardly find a Linux company. Linux was there, but well hidden. Ernest Lilley says that's the story of Linux in a nutshell: Its greatest successes are buried in servers that no one sees, and because of their reliability, no one thinks about…

Even better hidden was a conference on Apache held at the Alexis Park Hotel, and publicized so badly that I didn't learn of it until it was over. Perhaps that's where the Linux companies were: You sure couldn't find any of them at COMDEX. "

Starting to use this as a prompt / record of what to do next with the site at www.learn9.net

After the day on the theory of knowledge at the IQA Deming SIG meeting, the site needs an update with the previous material. This could be in a date sequence.

Two things made a strong impression.

There is much more of a base for quality as a subject in UK universities than I realised. I still think there could be more of a connection with peeople studying learning in organisations. Also the people at the meeting think that German universities have a history with engineering that compares with MIT as a source for positive attitudes to quality theory.

Deming stated that change comes from outside a system. I missed this bit really, although it comes at the beginning of the chapter. I was reminded of this, although I can't see how it fits with the idea that the system of profound knowledge can help management make decisions. This stuff is not prescriptive, whatever some comment may suggest.

Maybe the book is called 'The New Economics' as a study in what happens to companies whether they are learning or not. In the printing industry many organisations have ceased trading. Moving along with computers and the web is not easy.