Google blogsearch has found a blogger direct from the Networked Learning Conference. Grainne Conole has photos of the local views and the keynote speaker. Maybe more will turn up later.
Meanwhile another blogger , Malene Charlotte Larsen, claims to be on a "working holiday" but not attending the conference in person. However she has got a paper in the current Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. I have been round to St Lukes this morning for a quick look and find it is based on research into arto.dk in 2005. So the world of journals is working at normal speed for what it is. This is not meant as a complaint. Good to see some links to current websites.
Monday, May 05, 2008
I have done some notes on events and background for possible stories over the next ten months or so for OhmyNews and this blog.
Available as a Scribd doc and as a Google doc. Scribd may load faster. Let me know if you would like to edit the Google doc.
In brief, UK catching up fast with OhmyNews take on media and technology. But still a few years gap....
Available as a Scribd doc and as a Google doc. Scribd may load faster. Let me know if you would like to edit the Google doc.
In brief, UK catching up fast with OhmyNews take on media and technology. But still a few years gap....
The Networked Learning conference has started but there are no photos yet on Flickr. Surely some of them have a moment or two to spare?
This one is Creative Commons so I feel ok about the link. Photo by Adrian Libotean.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
I think the Adobe meeting tomorrow for financial analysts may be a defining moment for the Web. My guess is they will concentrate on Flash and AIR and that print and Postscript will not get much attention.
Print media still tend to prefer print. On Guardian Talk (Apr 12) LittleRichardjohn wrote-
In Education Guardian (published in print and online) Hilary Swain wrote this advice for "anyone wanting to make the most of learning opportunities offered by new technology."
Rather less nuanced is an editorial about local TV in the Western Morning News (not online as far as I know. A news story on a Conservative policy document quotes Jeremy Hunt as pointing out that although barriers are falling rapidly with the arrival of broadband internet TV "it is not going to take off until people can access it through their remote controls." However the Western Morning News editorial is less than impressed.
My guess is that actually the Western Morning News is more aware of how effective a combination of broadband and local TV could be than they would like their readers to be.
Not off topic yet, the media pages and the education pages could get swapped over more often as Jeff Jarvis has suggested. He seems to think news stories should just have tags, not be limited to once a fortnight, hat tip to David Weinberger he adds. Which reminds me, the paperback of "Everything is Miscellaneous" is out soon on Amazon USA. Available in the UK by post. Normally the London literary editors do not review paperbacks. but then they did not review the hardback either, in this case.
Print media still tend to prefer print. On Guardian Talk (Apr 12) LittleRichardjohn wrote-
The level of internet hysteria on GUT is clear enough. The posters most worried are those who seem to have a definite vested interest in preserving the dominance of print media (and its reliance on hard capitalism) over the new publishing and communications freedoms. The ones who call themselves writers, in fact. The people who should in theory be most in favour of wider freedoms of expression are often most hostile to it in action.
In Education Guardian (published in print and online) Hilary Swain wrote this advice for "anyone wanting to make the most of learning opportunities offered by new technology."
.....lovely as your new laptop is, learn to leave it alone sometimes. Sometimes, you may be able to find better information in a book - or even from a person.
Rather less nuanced is an editorial about local TV in the Western Morning News (not online as far as I know. A news story on a Conservative policy document quotes Jeremy Hunt as pointing out that although barriers are falling rapidly with the arrival of broadband internet TV "it is not going to take off until people can access it through their remote controls." However the Western Morning News editorial is less than impressed.
We welcome the idea that the Conservatives are taking "localism" seriously. But please, Mr Cameron, don't try to impose trashy US-style television on us.
My guess is that actually the Western Morning News is more aware of how effective a combination of broadband and local TV could be than they would like their readers to be.
Not off topic yet, the media pages and the education pages could get swapped over more often as Jeff Jarvis has suggested. He seems to think news stories should just have tags, not be limited to once a fortnight, hat tip to David Weinberger he adds. Which reminds me, the paperback of "Everything is Miscellaneous" is out soon on Amazon USA. Available in the UK by post. Normally the London literary editors do not review paperbacks. but then they did not review the hardback either, in this case.
The Safeliving blog has a graphic of a poster from the National Health Service (NHS) headlined "Public Service Propaganda Posters." So it is the propaganda aspect that is interesting for researchers in this case. The poster informs us that "Hands can transfer germs to every surface you touch" and suggests "Clean your hands as soon as you can."
This is part of a discourse, fair enough, but it may also be true. There could exist such things as germs and it may be good practice to wash hands. I am making this point as it seems the sort of thing that may get lost in this IAS project.
The Safeliving Blog has added a link to the Protection Science Swicki and set the search to start with "anxieties" and "danger" . This explains why these search terms are getting bigger on the word cloud. See recent screenshot.
I have also added ISO27000 and this is getting some attention. The Swicki allows votes on results for each search. So it could get better, in various directions.
I have tried to have a look at Critical Management Studies through the web. To make sense of the Networked Learning Conference it helps to keep up with critique, or at least it offers some clues.
Google finds
http://www.criticalmanagement.org
but this starts with a directory of files. I think it is helpful to record the problems, that is just the quality management approach that I support. And the graphic shows another problem.
Not sure why this should be. I did download reedy.pdf and there has been no disaster so far. But the message is not encouraging and so I think there should be an approach to Google to work out some corrective action.
Patrick Reedy seems to me to be questioning whether there is any request from activists for an academic contribution. Now much of what I work on is not progressive or even political. Quality assurance is obviously a corporate sort of topic. But I am also concerned with web design for general use including social groups. My impression is that the critique take on network learning has not moved much past objecting to the conditions for dialogue, so there is hardly a design phase. What is there about forms of practice? I would like to find some links so if I have missed them, guidance would be welcome.
Meanwhile social networking sites do exist but they seem to have happened in a parallel universe.
Academics seem much more interested in the "dark side", the negative consequences of anything at all. There is now a dedicated conference.
Here is a sample-
So is Google a safe environment? I think so, why not? Comments welcome.
And is there a message board somewhere?
Google finds
http://www.criticalmanagement.org
but this starts with a directory of files. I think it is helpful to record the problems, that is just the quality management approach that I support. And the graphic shows another problem.
Not sure why this should be. I did download reedy.pdf and there has been no disaster so far. But the message is not encouraging and so I think there should be an approach to Google to work out some corrective action.
Patrick Reedy seems to me to be questioning whether there is any request from activists for an academic contribution. Now much of what I work on is not progressive or even political. Quality assurance is obviously a corporate sort of topic. But I am also concerned with web design for general use including social groups. My impression is that the critique take on network learning has not moved much past objecting to the conditions for dialogue, so there is hardly a design phase. What is there about forms of practice? I would like to find some links so if I have missed them, guidance would be welcome.
Meanwhile social networking sites do exist but they seem to have happened in a parallel universe.
Academics seem much more interested in the "dark side", the negative consequences of anything at all. There is now a dedicated conference.
Here is a sample-
Organizations also seem to have a history of and an interest in repressing basic human impulses such as sexuality, carnality or violence whilst institutionalizing them (Foucault 1977; 1990) Organizational processes of normalization create and define deviance and perversion in those activities that cannot effectively be eradicated, and generate disciplinary practices to police this body of behaviour. Is the repressed always subject to return and never completely eliminated or contained? Is organizational crime always with us? Moreover, do exposures of the dark side of organization : 1. indicate mismanagement, loss of managerial power, passivity, neglect of duties and inadequate surveillance, and invite intervention for improved performance; or 2. do they indicate the presence of fundamentally uncontrollable forces that are an inalienable part of the viscerality of human organising?
So is Google a safe environment? I think so, why not? Comments welcome.
And is there a message board somewhere?
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Networked Learning Conference will be in Greece early in May. I am thinking about what might turn up online so have done some Googling.
Wikipedia still has the Technology-Enhanced Learning page much the same. This term seems to be approved by the European Union but I don't know why other words are not used as well. I myself added the category of "educational technology" but other categories may be added later.
The word "heterotopia" has no definition in the Wikipedia, just a clarification that it might relate to either medicine or Foucault. Google turns up with a long piece of text that I will return to. So far I cannot see where this would relate to web design as practice. But maybe there will be some clues somewhere online during May.
Here is some suitable academic language to link into comics-
Googling on OurComixGrid found a blog entry on MySpace that in a slightly disturbing way describes a level of commitment to art as a project and the web as part of this. Some of the blogs on MySpace appear to be just promotion most of the time but this one rings true. No recent updates so hope this means something else is happening.
The blogs listed on the Wikipedia page link to Ginny Salmon on YouTube talking about Second Life. She is Professor of e-learning and learning technology at Leicester. I have added a comment as I think there is learning happening already on Second Life whether or not the academic approach to design has been involved.
There is much to be gained from sharing views, I am looking forward to whatever is made public. But I think in the academic discussion there is sometimes not enough recognition of what happens online anyway.
Wikipedia still has the Technology-Enhanced Learning page much the same. This term seems to be approved by the European Union but I don't know why other words are not used as well. I myself added the category of "educational technology" but other categories may be added later.
The word "heterotopia" has no definition in the Wikipedia, just a clarification that it might relate to either medicine or Foucault. Google turns up with a long piece of text that I will return to. So far I cannot see where this would relate to web design as practice. But maybe there will be some clues somewhere online during May.
Here is some suitable academic language to link into comics-
“Sequential art” or the word “comics” employed as a singular noun are categorical terms used somewhat interchangeably (see, e.g. Eisner, 1985, McCloud, 1993, McCloud, 2000), to describe the medium of expression found in comic books, comic strips, graphic novels, manga (Japanese comics), webcomics (online comics), and other formats.
Googling on OurComixGrid found a blog entry on MySpace that in a slightly disturbing way describes a level of commitment to art as a project and the web as part of this. Some of the blogs on MySpace appear to be just promotion most of the time but this one rings true. No recent updates so hope this means something else is happening.
The blogs listed on the Wikipedia page link to Ginny Salmon on YouTube talking about Second Life. She is Professor of e-learning and learning technology at Leicester. I have added a comment as I think there is learning happening already on Second Life whether or not the academic approach to design has been involved.
There is much to be gained from sharing views, I am looking forward to whatever is made public. But I think in the academic discussion there is sometimes not enough recognition of what happens online anyway.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Two positive developments, one could relate to forms of fiction, more later. The other is that OhmyNews have published my story about the Information Security discussion this week. The UK has enough real problems to form a hard news introduction and I managed to include some of my own opinion-
This is the central bit in what I would like to talk about at the "Safety" conference in Lancaster. The ISO standards can be integrated as management because they each have Plan-Do-Study-Act as a basis. Why it works in Japan ok but less in the UK is still a bit of a mystery but OhmyNews is well placed to cover this. It may take a while.
Leadership is obviously part of the discussion but I still think the "learning organisation" topic was dropped too quickly in the UK. "Networked learning" is also part of this. The security is traded off with access so is never complete. Security awareness can come through forms of learning like anything else.
The other development is that WorldTV now offer service to combine web video as a channel. Victor Keegan wrote about it in the Guardian so this an example of the contribution made by professional print journalists, just to make it clear that bloggers recognise this sometimes.
I have strung together the videos of the Lancaster campus, click here for the Bailrigg channel ,starting at Info21 and ending up at the Spicy Hut. the scenario is a journey from a discussion on some proposal that meets some security and communication criteria intended for a client meeting at the Spicy Hut. Will the intention survive critique along the way? World TV allows new video to be inserted in the sequence. It could be from anywhere, a lot of places look much the same. Could end up as fiction or documentary. Text versions could inlcude comments on this blog or there is a Google doc.
The survey reports UK interest in the ISO 27000 standards but the most recent survey by ISO showed only 486 certificates in the UK compared to 3,790 in Japan.
The basis of ISO27001, the standard used for certification, is the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle referenced to Dr Deming though he called it the Shewart cycle and the word "Study" is also widely used in place on "Check". The standard describes how an information security system can be established, operated, reviewed and improved. There is a requirement for system review as well as corrective and preventive action. The controls selected for a specific system are a consequence of the management process.
My impression is that this kind of systems approach may not be well accepted in the UK. There appears to be more interest in leadership as a topic than in how organisations learn to adopt in a new context such as that associated with an increased role for information. The approach of finding senior managers to blame when future problems arise may not be as helpful as looking at procedures and culture more widely.
This is the central bit in what I would like to talk about at the "Safety" conference in Lancaster. The ISO standards can be integrated as management because they each have Plan-Do-Study-Act as a basis. Why it works in Japan ok but less in the UK is still a bit of a mystery but OhmyNews is well placed to cover this. It may take a while.
Leadership is obviously part of the discussion but I still think the "learning organisation" topic was dropped too quickly in the UK. "Networked learning" is also part of this. The security is traded off with access so is never complete. Security awareness can come through forms of learning like anything else.
The other development is that WorldTV now offer service to combine web video as a channel. Victor Keegan wrote about it in the Guardian so this an example of the contribution made by professional print journalists, just to make it clear that bloggers recognise this sometimes.
I have strung together the videos of the Lancaster campus, click here for the Bailrigg channel ,starting at Info21 and ending up at the Spicy Hut. the scenario is a journey from a discussion on some proposal that meets some security and communication criteria intended for a client meeting at the Spicy Hut. Will the intention survive critique along the way? World TV allows new video to be inserted in the sequence. It could be from anywhere, a lot of places look much the same. Could end up as fiction or documentary. Text versions could inlcude comments on this blog or there is a Google doc.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
I have done a revised version of the proposal for the Protection conference.
It is concentrating on data security. I think I will understand enough about 27000 by then. It would still be good if other people could be there. Not sure the blog approach can be extended to a conference presentation where the speaker is missing some basic information but it is worth a try.
I have dropped the reference to film scripts. there is a film evening during the conference but this seems to be a different mode to the papers.
Search results, data security, and integrated management
Secure data is valued as an input for any process so is often within the scope of management concern. Web search can be a source for documents, probably with a wider range than an academic library. The paper considers the possibility that danger can be real.
Standards for data security such as ISO27000 can be audited and reviewed together with other aspects of a management system. Comparisons can be made with studies on quality policies. Academics have concentrated on “quality” as a discourse. Wilmott and Wilkinson1 describe the word as having “no meaning”.
Even if the management procedures described in standards are seen as an imaginary there is still a question as to how organisations learn or otherwise change behaviour over time. As with the latest revision of ISO9000, ISO 27000 refers to the PDCA learning cycle and work by Deming. This can be seen as an approach to design.
One area to concentrate on is security around mobile communications. There is currently a trend for material promoting security software to present social networking as a danger. How to balance this with the benefits of web access will be considered taking an internet cafe as a case study. A PayPal account was compromised during 2007, evidence that danger can be real.
The style of presentation is intended to be as close to a workshop as possible. The paper could be combines with others in a session.
The presentation will conclude by looking at Swickis, search engines using a social approach associated with Wikis. Currently there are two shown on a related blog, one for "learning with ISO 9000", one for sciences of protection.
It is concentrating on data security. I think I will understand enough about 27000 by then. It would still be good if other people could be there. Not sure the blog approach can be extended to a conference presentation where the speaker is missing some basic information but it is worth a try.
I have dropped the reference to film scripts. there is a film evening during the conference but this seems to be a different mode to the papers.
Friday, April 11, 2008
I have been thinking about the Networked Learning Conferences, both from the past and coming up soon. What I remember is that the "critique" approach seemed to question whether e-learning was something to engage with. Some of the discussion seemed not to get past this to an engagement with practice. Not sure if I missed where this could have changed. I have found a link to Chris Grey Against Learning and had another look. Not very polite about the web.
Having put up the Flickr photos from the leadership event ( see previous post ) I have noticed more support for such forms of social networking. In e-learning age Jane Hart writes about a toolbox based on surveys of people in educationa and training and hosted by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Most of this seems to be the sort of software usually mentioned anyway in discussion about the web, including Google Docs and Firefox. My guess is that this has mostly come companies and individuals in groups.
I have searched out some photos from Networked Learning 2004 and started a new set on Flickr. ( I reached the 200 limit so have now invested in the pro offer so will carry on loading more from the backlist indefinitely...) There is a spot for comment on Flickr but also the toolbox mentions voicethread, "a collaborative slideshow tool" for linking in audio. So maybe more links will turn up.
On Flickr there are tags for "networkedlearning" and "networklearning" but not much from the conferences.
One topic will be to sort out a definition for "Technology Enhanced Learning". From a Prolearn email I have found a Wikipedia reference. There is a note as of today that the article is not categorised and should be categorised with others of a similar nature. It will be interesting to see if this changes over the next couple of months.
One of the discussions will be about "The Tyranny of Participation and Collaboration in Networked Learning" including claims about "heterotopian spaces". Google is not very useful in explaining heterotopia. The Wikipedia offers a couple of obviously wrong choices and a link to Foucault. Most of the Google results are for journal articles that require payment.
I have found a description of one from Sage-
Maybe some link will suggest more about this. I may pay out for the download but it could be better value to have a couple of hours web access at Life Bytes.
Comments welcome.
Having put up the Flickr photos from the leadership event ( see previous post ) I have noticed more support for such forms of social networking. In e-learning age Jane Hart writes about a toolbox based on surveys of people in educationa and training and hosted by the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Most of this seems to be the sort of software usually mentioned anyway in discussion about the web, including Google Docs and Firefox. My guess is that this has mostly come companies and individuals in groups.
I have searched out some photos from Networked Learning 2004 and started a new set on Flickr. ( I reached the 200 limit so have now invested in the pro offer so will carry on loading more from the backlist indefinitely...) There is a spot for comment on Flickr but also the toolbox mentions voicethread, "a collaborative slideshow tool" for linking in audio. So maybe more links will turn up.
On Flickr there are tags for "networkedlearning" and "networklearning" but not much from the conferences.
One topic will be to sort out a definition for "Technology Enhanced Learning". From a Prolearn email I have found a Wikipedia reference. There is a note as of today that the article is not categorised and should be categorised with others of a similar nature. It will be interesting to see if this changes over the next couple of months.
One of the discussions will be about "The Tyranny of Participation and Collaboration in Networked Learning" including claims about "heterotopian spaces". Google is not very useful in explaining heterotopia. The Wikipedia offers a couple of obviously wrong choices and a link to Foucault. Most of the Google results are for journal articles that require payment.
I have found a description of one from Sage-
Shaping e-Access in the Cybercafé: Networks, Boundaries and Heterotopian Innovation
Sonia Liff
Warwick Business School, Warwick University, Sonia.Liff@Warwick.ac.uk
Fred Steward
Brunel Research in Enterprise, Sustainability and Ethics (BRESE), School of Business and Management, Brunel University, Fred.Stward@brunel.ac.uk
The cybercafé is located as an innovative site of e-access emerging in the 1990s. Accounts of its novelty are reviewed. Its distinctiveness as a site linking the `real' and the `virtual' is theorized in terms of social networks and Foucault's concept of heterotopia. The growth and nature of cybercafés in the UK are investigated using data from a number of surveys. The detailed practices of a sample of cybercafés are examined using data from on-site interviews and observations. It is shown that the properties of a heterotopia are expressed in cybercafés, but to differing degrees explained by contrasting types of boundary-spanning practice. It argued that this analysis has implications for the future management and facilitation of e-access in cybercafés.
Key Words: boundary spanning • cybercafé • e-access • heterotopia • information and communication technology (ICT) policy • innovation • network
Maybe some link will suggest more about this. I may pay out for the download but it could be better value to have a couple of hours web access at Life Bytes.
Comments welcome.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
I have posted some photos on Flickr from the conference on leadership that happened in Exeter on Monday. There was only a mention of the theme from the previous event when Will Hutton claimed that the context for organisations has been changed by technology and that leadership has to change to cope with this. See PDF of his presentation. However the idea seemed to be accepted. And the Flickr link has been welcomed. There may be a link from the official site.
More later.
More later.
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The Byron Report appears to concentrate on other dangers from the web, unsuitable content for children. The presentation in media has so far obscured the interest in digital literacy that was in the research. This report could be a productive basis for discussion as there is an alarming discourse around it as well as real issues.
Things may change between now and the Protection conference. So far there has been almost no press coverage of the issues in the quote below.
Annex G: The Impact of the Media on Children and Young People with a particular focus on computer games and the internet (PDF, 305kb)
I have started a topic on Guardian Talk - Media-New Media. Fear and web culture. There are links to education but it seems to start as a media issue, at least as reported.
Graphic from the main report. Could be a works instruction. Good to include mention of anti-virus software.
Things may change between now and the Protection conference. So far there has been almost no press coverage of the issues in the quote below.
"There is a long tradition of media education in UK schools, although it has remained fairly marginal to the mainstream curriculum, particularly in primary schools. Paradoxically, media literacy has not been a significant element of the National Literacy Strategy; and the National Curriculum for Information and Communication Technology currently focuses primarily on technical skills rather than on the evaluation of digital content. By contrast, media educators have a well-established conceptual framework, and a developed set of classroom strategies, that are increasingly being extended to digital media such as computer games and the internet (Buckingham, 2003, 2007; Burn and Durran, 2007). Media education involves understanding the processes by which media are produced; analysing the verbal and visual ‘languages’ they use to create meaning; making judgments about how media represent the world; and understanding how audiences are targeted, and how they respond. These approaches generally involve both critical study and creative production of media."
Annex G: The Impact of the Media on Children and Young People with a particular focus on computer games and the internet (PDF, 305kb)
I have started a topic on Guardian Talk - Media-New Media. Fear and web culture. There are links to education but it seems to start as a media issue, at least as reported.
Graphic from the main report. Could be a works instruction. Good to include mention of anti-virus software.
Information Security
The ISO survey (PDF link) published in 2007 included for the first time a section on ISO/IEC 27001:2005, a management system for information security. My interest has been in ISO 9000 but there is an overlap in how management systems work through documentation and learning. Standards could be relevant for the current research project. The Management School did contribute to the KE project.
In the UK there is now declining interest in ISO9000. However the number of certificates on the planet continues to increase. I wrote a story on this for OhmyNews, mostly about the numbers in China.
Selected numbers from the 2006 survey on ISO/IEC 27001:2005
United Kingdom 486
India 369
Japan 3,790
So although the UK has some base for this, enough not to need to outsource all data management anytime soon, the number of certificates for Japan is striking. Could it be that there is some practical reason for this?
Web search finds a couple of PDF documents that help to understand what the standard is about, both from consultants so look out for rhetoric.
Form for checking readiness from ATSEC
Information Security and ISO27001 – an Introduction from ITgovernance
The form mentions four areas where records may exist-
Nonconformities
Preventative and corrective
Training plans for your employees
Regular reviews of ISMS
The introduction includes reference to the PDCA cycle
This formulation implies a level of management that is not always involved in the system. Further discussion required on how this might work.
Meanwhile the British Standards Institute (BSI) have published PAS 99, a guide to an integrated management system that could include all the standards for audit and review-
* ISO 9001 Quality
* ISO 14001 Environment
* BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety
* ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security
* ISO 22000 Food Safety
* ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service
The ISO survey (PDF link) published in 2007 included for the first time a section on ISO/IEC 27001:2005, a management system for information security. My interest has been in ISO 9000 but there is an overlap in how management systems work through documentation and learning. Standards could be relevant for the current research project. The Management School did contribute to the KE project.
In the UK there is now declining interest in ISO9000. However the number of certificates on the planet continues to increase. I wrote a story on this for OhmyNews, mostly about the numbers in China.
Selected numbers from the 2006 survey on ISO/IEC 27001:2005
United Kingdom 486
India 369
Japan 3,790
So although the UK has some base for this, enough not to need to outsource all data management anytime soon, the number of certificates for Japan is striking. Could it be that there is some practical reason for this?
Web search finds a couple of PDF documents that help to understand what the standard is about, both from consultants so look out for rhetoric.
Form for checking readiness from ATSEC
Information Security and ISO27001 – an Introduction from ITgovernance
The form mentions four areas where records may exist-
Nonconformities
Preventative and corrective
Training plans for your employees
Regular reviews of ISMS
The introduction includes reference to the PDCA cycle
The PDCA cycle is the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle that was originated in the 1950s by W. Edwards Deming and which says that that business processes should be treated as though they are in a continuous feedback loop so that managers can identify and change those parts of the process that need improvement.
The process, or an improvement to the process, should first be planned, then implemented and its performance measured, then the measurements should be checked against the planned specification and any deviations or potential improvements identified, and reported to management for a decision about what action to take.
This formulation implies a level of management that is not always involved in the system. Further discussion required on how this might work.
Meanwhile the British Standards Institute (BSI) have published PAS 99, a guide to an integrated management system that could include all the standards for audit and review-
* ISO 9001 Quality
* ISO 14001 Environment
* BS OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and Safety
* ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security
* ISO 22000 Food Safety
* ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service
The IAS view on danger seems to be that the discourse around danger is more interesting, except when this discourse causes danger, which is then regarded as real. That is a bit sweeping but is based on cases from the workshop on documentation etc. The danger of terrorists crossing the Mexico / USA border was seen as low. The danger of death from dehydration was seen as significant. So on the Casa Segura website there is a warning before some guidance on survival in a desert -
So this is not an example of a procedure or works instruction following on from a policy. The policy is formally opposed to the procedure. However there is a link to an Australian government site about dehydration. Perhaps this could be considered as objective information, useful for people in an Australian desert.
At the workshop the most enthusiasm for detailed instructions came in the proposals for the "extreme green guerilla" (E.G.G.) community, "a network of amateur self-sustaining people who have shortened their lifespan to sustain the ultimate green lifestyle." The manifesto includes a statement - "We will not engage in consumerism. We must not consume. We must be consumed."
One project is the Animal Messaging Service. "Extreme green guerrillas are against using the Internet or mobile phones for communication, as this method will tie them to big corporation. E.G.G. are also against conventional posting service, as it leaves a great CO2 footprint. E.G.G. send messages internationally by hacking into the animal migration system. In natural sanctuaries environmental protection agencies tag migrating animals with active RFID tags. E.G.G.s hack into these tagged animals to send digital messages internationally.
The E.G.G. project is supported by detailed manuals so is a suitable case study for how detailed instructions can support a manifesto.
We strongly discourage anyone from making the dangerous journey through the Sonoran desert. There is not sufficient water or resources and temperatures are extreme. It will take days of walking in a harsh landscape and it is not worth risking your life!
So this is not an example of a procedure or works instruction following on from a policy. The policy is formally opposed to the procedure. However there is a link to an Australian government site about dehydration. Perhaps this could be considered as objective information, useful for people in an Australian desert.
At the workshop the most enthusiasm for detailed instructions came in the proposals for the "extreme green guerilla" (E.G.G.) community, "a network of amateur self-sustaining people who have shortened their lifespan to sustain the ultimate green lifestyle." The manifesto includes a statement - "We will not engage in consumerism. We must not consume. We must be consumed."
One project is the Animal Messaging Service. "Extreme green guerrillas are against using the Internet or mobile phones for communication, as this method will tie them to big corporation. E.G.G. are also against conventional posting service, as it leaves a great CO2 footprint. E.G.G. send messages internationally by hacking into the animal migration system. In natural sanctuaries environmental protection agencies tag migrating animals with active RFID tags. E.G.G.s hack into these tagged animals to send digital messages internationally.
The E.G.G. project is supported by detailed manuals so is a suitable case study for how detailed instructions can support a manifesto.
This is a blog version of material that may find a version style for a "paper" or at least a workshop or fringe discussion around "sciences of protection".
It may seem way off topic but it eventually clarifies ideas to attempt to present them. The academics in Lancaster deal with different subjects over time but there is some continuity. I may improve my understanding of where they are at as well as of the role of documents in a process.
I still think there is a connection between quality ideas and the work on learning organisations. The "knowledge economy" (KE) was a useful context for this. However, my impression is that it was the rhetoric around the KE that was of interest. Discourse analysis seems to be a theme that continues over different research projects. I have yet to find much about KE from IAS that looks at policy as if a positive contribution was possible. During the conference the after dinner speech was probaly the most effective presentation and the concern for academic freedom resonated with the audience.
Today in the Guardian Education section there is an article by Phil Beadle who claims that computers cannot replace the "professional brilliance" of teachers. My guess is that his take on the KE is shared by many in education.
So although I may seem off topic, one aim is to find some way of working with information technology that meets some of the educational objections. "Quality" is one way of describing this. Some of the academic discussion seems not to have got past a set of objections so there is not much contribution to a design stage. Is it surprising that the learning aspect of social networking is best understood by online companies? Another article this week objects to cyberbullying of teachers through student comments on Facebook. My impression is that the Guardian rarely includes a study of how Facebook works or how education could learn from it and similar sites.
To be updated later with some comment on the Networked Learning conference. Will it all be about "the dark side" or will there be anything that could connect with practice?
It may seem way off topic but it eventually clarifies ideas to attempt to present them. The academics in Lancaster deal with different subjects over time but there is some continuity. I may improve my understanding of where they are at as well as of the role of documents in a process.
I still think there is a connection between quality ideas and the work on learning organisations. The "knowledge economy" (KE) was a useful context for this. However, my impression is that it was the rhetoric around the KE that was of interest. Discourse analysis seems to be a theme that continues over different research projects. I have yet to find much about KE from IAS that looks at policy as if a positive contribution was possible. During the conference the after dinner speech was probaly the most effective presentation and the concern for academic freedom resonated with the audience.
Today in the Guardian Education section there is an article by Phil Beadle who claims that computers cannot replace the "professional brilliance" of teachers. My guess is that his take on the KE is shared by many in education.
The further agenda is also economic. If we are working towards a "knowledge economy" in foregrounding ICT use above any other skill, we are promoting an economy in which only one form of knowledge is perceived as viable or useful, and a lesson wasted on a clumsy, two-sentence PowerPoint presentation is of more value than reading a book.
So although I may seem off topic, one aim is to find some way of working with information technology that meets some of the educational objections. "Quality" is one way of describing this. Some of the academic discussion seems not to have got past a set of objections so there is not much contribution to a design stage. Is it surprising that the learning aspect of social networking is best understood by online companies? Another article this week objects to cyberbullying of teachers through student comments on Facebook. My impression is that the Guardian rarely includes a study of how Facebook works or how education could learn from it and similar sites.
To be updated later with some comment on the Networked Learning conference. Will it all be about "the dark side" or will there be anything that could connect with practice?
Friday, March 28, 2008
Film is part of the scope for the research project on safe living. Annette Davison is in the photo, talking about "The Conversation" as part of a presentation on "Ear Defenders : designing film for safe living". There is a readiness to use media from the web or anywhere, not just a print format suitable for journals.
I have found a couple of links from Blinkbox where you can create a one minute sample. This seems a good chance to test this. More argument later if things fit together.
Not much music on this one
www.blinkbox.com
Only some at the end on this
www.blinkbox.com
Monday, March 17, 2008
safetypaper
The workshop last week on documents, mediation and presentation was mostly related to examples of state policy on immigration and terror. It turned out that the chance of being blown up on a flight is less than one in a million so discourse theory is a reasonable way to explain the theatre at airports. Also the number of terrorists arrested so far on the USA / Mexico border is reported as zero.
However I still think that danger could be real. Also that there is something that could be explained as a "knowledge economy" or something like it. And that the word "quality" has a meaning. There is such a thing as rhetoric to support a neo-liberal project, but this is not a way to explain everything.
I realise I am repeating more or less the same points every so often but there is a benefit in testing ideas so trying to connect with academic conferences is worth a try sometimes. I am not sure what a "paper" is, now that the web allows versions to exist at different times. Still, I have managed 300 words more or less on topic.
This blog post can be edited so will have more links later
=================
current version, deadline 15 April
Possible thread- Distributing protection and 'Safe Living'
Search results, documents, and integrated management
Documents can be part of a process with a scope that includes safety. Web search can be a source, probably with a wider range than an academic library. The paper considers the possibility that danger can be real.
Standards for health and safety compete for the attention of senior policy makers. They can be audited and reviewed together with other standards. Comparisons can be made with studies on quality policies. Academics have concentrated on “quality” as a discourse. Wilmott and Wilkinson describe the word as “meaningless”.
Even if the management procedures described in standards are seen as an imaginary there is still a question as to how organisations learn or otherwise change behaviour over time.
One area to concentrate on is security around mobile communications. There is currently a trend for material promoting security software to present social networking as a danger. How to balance this with the benefits of web access will be considered taking an internet cafe as a case study. A PayPal account was compromised during 2007, evidence that danger can be real.
The style of presentation is intended to be as close to a workshop as possible. The paper could be combines with others in a session. Reference will be made to two scripts for film fiction. One deals with the difficulties for practitioners in maintaining a focus on a project while relating to the “critique” concerns of academics. The other covers a security catastrophe intended to focus on responses seen in the context of organisation.
The presentation will conclude by looking at a Swicki, a search engine using a social approach associated with Wikis. It will be claimed that documents can be part of a management process, possibly contributing to safety.
The workshop last week on documents, mediation and presentation was mostly related to examples of state policy on immigration and terror. It turned out that the chance of being blown up on a flight is less than one in a million so discourse theory is a reasonable way to explain the theatre at airports. Also the number of terrorists arrested so far on the USA / Mexico border is reported as zero.
However I still think that danger could be real. Also that there is something that could be explained as a "knowledge economy" or something like it. And that the word "quality" has a meaning. There is such a thing as rhetoric to support a neo-liberal project, but this is not a way to explain everything.
I realise I am repeating more or less the same points every so often but there is a benefit in testing ideas so trying to connect with academic conferences is worth a try sometimes. I am not sure what a "paper" is, now that the web allows versions to exist at different times. Still, I have managed 300 words more or less on topic.
This blog post can be edited so will have more links later
=================
current version, deadline 15 April
Possible thread- Distributing protection and 'Safe Living'
Search results, documents, and integrated management
Documents can be part of a process with a scope that includes safety. Web search can be a source, probably with a wider range than an academic library. The paper considers the possibility that danger can be real.
Standards for health and safety compete for the attention of senior policy makers. They can be audited and reviewed together with other standards. Comparisons can be made with studies on quality policies. Academics have concentrated on “quality” as a discourse. Wilmott and Wilkinson describe the word as “meaningless”.
Even if the management procedures described in standards are seen as an imaginary there is still a question as to how organisations learn or otherwise change behaviour over time.
One area to concentrate on is security around mobile communications. There is currently a trend for material promoting security software to present social networking as a danger. How to balance this with the benefits of web access will be considered taking an internet cafe as a case study. A PayPal account was compromised during 2007, evidence that danger can be real.
The style of presentation is intended to be as close to a workshop as possible. The paper could be combines with others in a session. Reference will be made to two scripts for film fiction. One deals with the difficulties for practitioners in maintaining a focus on a project while relating to the “critique” concerns of academics. The other covers a security catastrophe intended to focus on responses seen in the context of organisation.
The presentation will conclude by looking at a Swicki, a search engine using a social approach associated with Wikis. It will be claimed that documents can be part of a management process, possibly contributing to safety.
Monday, March 10, 2008
There has been some progress on the "Sciences of Protection" Swicki that I started as a test. "Fears" and "Anxieties" have been added to the buzzcloud following their use in searches. I have also added "danger", a word I used last week at a meeting of the Deming SIG. Apparently the people who work on risk rarely mention the word danger though it has turned up on the website for the workshop later this week. Documentation in itself is seen as potentially dangerous, even if usually there is no danger that could be as interesting as language. Where I am going way off topic may become clearer so check this blog next weekend.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
A couple of things fit together from recent reading. Through the Financial Times I have found a research project into Second Life funded by IBM. There is a company website for www.seriosity.com, linked to research by Byron Reeves at Stanford and Thomas Malone at MIT. There is evidence of leadership development through online games, refencing a leadership model developed at MIT. I have now found three PDF files about this and they make a lot of sense.
Then earlier today I caught up with Buzzmachine, the blog from Jeff Jarvis. He mostly writes about media as changing with the web , but occasionally mentions education. He expacts a similar scale of change at some point to what he observes in news organisations. The universities he mentions as having content online already are Stanford and MIT. In the UK there is often mention of research and teaching universities as if there is a need to concentrate on a small number of research brands. As the effect of the web speeds up I am not sure why any research universities would be in the UK in terms of destination sites. It seems to me that the universities where there is most interest in the web are not the same ones that get research funding. Bit sweeping but something to come back to.
Then earlier today I caught up with Buzzmachine, the blog from Jeff Jarvis. He mostly writes about media as changing with the web , but occasionally mentions education. He expacts a similar scale of change at some point to what he observes in news organisations. The universities he mentions as having content online already are Stanford and MIT. In the UK there is often mention of research and teaching universities as if there is a need to concentrate on a small number of research brands. As the effect of the web speeds up I am not sure why any research universities would be in the UK in terms of destination sites. It seems to me that the universities where there is most interest in the web are not the same ones that get research funding. Bit sweeping but something to come back to.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
I have put a comment on the blog for the New Sciences of Protection project. This is at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Lancaster, where I tried to link quality assurance and learning organisations at a previous conference on the knowledge economy. Not sure where this will go. They seem mostly interested in language, but documents can be a real cause of danger.
By the way, the Knowledge Economy will turn up again quite soon at the Work Foundation. This appears to be a study in government, not rhetoric, so could be a basis for credibility.
By the way, the Knowledge Economy will turn up again quite soon at the Work Foundation. This appears to be a study in government, not rhetoric, so could be a basis for credibility.
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