Victor Keegan is writing in the Guardian (17 Sept, Opinion on page 4 of the Technology section) and adding sound interviews on AudioBoo. So the question is also what happens with journalism? not just academic research.



So far I have found it quite hard to add data that can be shared. My test so far

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Citations collected using Mendeley

Experimentality and "study/check"

This post is to explain my interest in the Experimentality Research Programmes at Lancaster IAS so relates back to previously. Preparing for the Protection Science conference last year I realised that most of the references I found for Plan - Do - Check - Act came from Ishikawa. Available online is this from Cambridge Department of Engineering.

PDCA relates to experimentality and also to learning. Deming promoted "study" rather than "check". This may be a translation issue or because Shewart used "check" earlier.

The current ISO management standards all use PDCA. I think there is some resistance from UK management. Not sure about this. Deming ideas seem better implemented in Asia than in USA or UK. Quality Circles have continued in Asia though regarded as a passing fad in UK. There could be a cultural environment that allows PDCA to function. I could try to write more about this but mostly this is a question for the next few months. Link suggestions welcome.

I am still trying to find out more about the project. The website used to have a paragraph on "command and control" management. Can't find this in the new version but I have found a page from CSEC. This asks " whether a kind of continuous experimentality is coming to characterise the logic of late, 'reflexive', or 'knowing' modernity " and suggests "the experiment" is a trope that contains within itself "the ambiguous ethico-political promise - of both control and creativity - of both Weber's iron cage and Nietzsche's 'galaxies of joy'."

My concern is that the project may end up with the conclusion that there are some issues with Weber's iron cage and "experimentality" is another example of this. In the Protection Science discussion I tried to suggest that there are real problems with information security. There is some sales talk as well, but not just neo-liberal rhetoric. I mention this as a bit of time countering critique may be needed to create space. One limited aim is to understand PDCA better so it can be more useful.

Couple of links found already

Yahoo Answers on modernity

Wikipedia on Max Weber

On the IPEX 2002 blog I have listed some dates and draft stories, mostly technical, up to IPEX in 2010. Most topics can be tested in chicago next week. My guess is that digital communication will be well established and discussed during IPEX. The EPUB format for e-books could be part of pre-media workflows. XML will be a focus for Online Information / IMS in December. Printing will need the Job Definition Format (also XML) to compete on speed and integration.

Thinking about previous Online information occasions I came across David Weinberger on Youtube. His keynote "Everything is Miscellaneous" became a book though not reviewed in the UK. He is continuing to talk about the lost authority of print though video keynotes are an alternative. He welcomes online debate as if nothing much is ever final.

I am thinking of doing a paper for an academic conference. Lancaster IAS are looking at "experimentality". This is my way reintroduce ideas about quality and learning. The IAS is not restricted by disciplines. Somehow "learning" is associated with HR and quality with systems. So a fit withing the Management school is problematic.

At previous IAS conferences there have been some supporters of a critique take on quality, seeing it as neo-liberal rhetoric, an attack on academic liberty etc. etc. but this can be a creative tension.

One experiment could be to drop the attempt to find ways of working with quality theory and concentrate on using it for explanation. Introducing 'Making Quality Critical', Wilkinson and Wilmott describe the quality literature as "distinguished by a normative thrust". It is true that most books about quality are written for a management audience. But quality theory can explain why organisations fail, cease to exist. Printing and publishing could offer examples to observe over the next year. The Guardian is concerned that online income will not grow quickly enoughto replace lost sales of print. there is also an editorial problem of how to benefit from user contributions while the professional journalists continue knocking copy on the "bilious blogs". Haymarket are dealing with related issues as some magazine titles move online. Printweek will continue in print presumably, but balanced by the website. A recent story about Twitter was followed by extended online comments.

Also of interest are websites such as the Networked Learning conference and the webiste for Critical Management. Both sometimes mention Web2 but have less commenting etc. than the Printweek site for example. My impression is that the conference paper and eventual journal publication is still a priority. Other sites have a lot more draft content or versions for revison. Jeff Jarvis on Buzzmachine sometimes posts what looks like a book proposal. The versions of blog posts that are published in the print Guardian show the gain from comments and editing.

The description of the Experimentality project now includes a move away from "command and control" in organisations. I think this relates to Deming ideas and Plan-Do-Check/Study Act. (scroll to bottom of ISO page for a diagram). "Check2 as used by Ishikawa changed to "study2 for the USA. More detail on how words are used could emerge over the next year. Also to study, the cultural background. As if this can be easily understood.

David Hutchins repeats a quote in the September 2009 Quality World from an Ishikawa package in the '70s.

We regard each individual as the expert in his or her own job and our system is based on the idea of using collective thinking power and job knowledge of all our people to work towards making the best of our business.

Hutchins comments on this as a contrast with UK industrial relations.

More recently the ISO Survey shows Japanese support for ISO 27001, a standard on information security featuring the PDCA cycle. Some people at the IAS conference on protection regarded talk about information security as another example of neo-liberal rhetoric. But the new Learning Zone on alexanderplatz has a full section on information security. It will be interesting to see how the Learning Zone is regarded. Chris Grey has written "Against Learning", regarding the word as part of a trend with negative consequences, including changes for the position of universities. Still the Learning Zone exists and connects so some views may change.

Checking out Management Learningg I find there is an offer of free access till the end of September. Connections with practice will be reported in future posts.

IPEX blog updated with draft stories for OhmyNews. check with Print 09 in Chicago soon. similar stories in Ohmynews over the previous three years or so. Round about now the digital developments in communication will be fairly clear. So the "learning organisation" aspect covers how the changes are implemented.

The Deming SIG meets this week and also early December when I will be at the Online Information event. Maybe there can be an online connection.

The IAS in Lancaster is starting a project on Experimentality. No dates known as yet for workshops etc but I will try to link to this.

So as a diary this is not too well defined. Could be more online than the IPEX aspect.

Here is a current flier for the MA course at Lancaster on Management Learning and Leadership

MA Management Learning and Leadership leaflet

One interesting thing is that Network Learning can include Online Communication. Previously i thought Network Learning was mostly about Online Communication but maybe "blended learning" ideas are now associated with more emphasis on other forms of network.

Next course starts in October.

Twitter still seems the way to go. will789gb by the way. The main learn9.net site has been dormant for a while as i have done more blogging, got lost on Facebook etc. But the summer drift is fading away and a redesign is in order. The site changes through the Swicki in response to searches, at least the size of the words can alter over time. Recent screen shot-



This blog is still about quality but clearly ISO 27000 is a topic of interest. "Enterprise Social Software" may sound more legitimate than checking out Twitter. "Learning Organisations" still in there, quite strong if you include both spellings.

No response I can find from Lancaster Management of marketing theory or moving beyond brochureware. Maybe there are limits to Twitter. Some questions cannot be asked, but if stored away somewhere the next development may connect. My current question would be how the critique thread links in with social software. I cannot find much about this from recently. The research end of the universities has a concern with dialogue and there was a sort of design aim for where online learning could go. But the current activity online is not connected somehow. Maybe i am just missing it. I will keep checking Twitter to see what turns up.

Already I notice that trade shows have a Twitter presence so the actual dates cease to matter so much. Total Print Expo has been canceled anyway but there is a point in time mid October when I think some damage checks should happen. The Frankfurt Book Fair is about the same time and the e-book technology is relevant for print and learning. In Lancaster there is a project around experiments about to start. I hope to do something around check/study as a phase in plan - do - something - act. It may be a translation problem. In Japan, check may include study. In Exeter there are classes in conversation so I may find out more before next July. The Deming group of the CQI continues with a project on a model of sustainability. Another meeting next week. There is still a view that content has to be solid before publication. Just putting up something and waiting for suggestions is not the current style. My efforts to combine bits of blog through Twitter messages may or may not be convincing.

Some Twitter checks. BETT2010 not posting too often. Links to stuff from last year. @atwossybookclub invited to a new Graphic Novel pavilion. Sounds interesting. This feed will continue through Frankfurt presumably. Tools of Change have a Facebook page for fans. Online Information / IMS has links to downloads from previously.

Meanwhile the Critical Management website seems to be mostly about real time events. I cannot find much content or discussion online. The MEHEM event is invitation only, can't find any published stuff so far. Yes there is pressure on universities around issues of relevance. Is this really so surprising? Online Information is just a trade show but similar issues may come up. The content in journals has got less easy to access not more connected as it moves away from paper to password protected academic sites. So the discussion around learning organisations or whatever you want to call it is getting more divided into academic disciplines and what most practitioners access. Just my take, comment welcome.

The Networked Learning conference has a Facebook aspect but just to make it easier to log in. Real event in May but maybe more will happen in the meantime.

Trying out Twitter as will789gb . Mostly using too many words. Lancaster Management is there but it mostly seems like a corporate announcement style. Couple of years ago I wanted to make my own video of a day of lead/learning. this was not allowed but there was an official video, some nor on YouTube that again seems to me to be much like a brochure. Interactivity and dialogue, that sort of thing. Can it be found through Twitter?

BBC Today on Radio 4 Monday had a short piece about UK universities and concern from MPs about standards. Scroll to about ten to eight.

Dr Wendy Platt starts by reference to the Quality Assurance Agency. So possibly quality theory is of more interest for Russell Group universities than I have found previously. Then she suggests the record of graduates from "the top twenty" unis in finding jobs is evidence of something. I find it rather disturbing that she seems to suggest this could include the dodgy value of attending any other UK university. My guess is that creative industries, tech stuff around the web, engineering base for quality, several other things practical or vocational would be quite likely to be studied somewhere else than the "top 20". Worth checking out some time. The Today approach seemed to be not to question this idea of the "top 20". What was the RAE about if there is just a static ceiling?

Last night I heard a BBC World Service program about technology and learning organisations. I wonder if they are open to a mash-up? Peter Day mentions he finds half an hour of BBC training just close to his limit sometimes. I wonder if I could take some sound clips out of his half hour programs and do some samples for YouTube?

The "Learning Organisation" is near the front of the half hour but not much explained. Maybe this is because Leadership is now promoted. Most academic links to the USA. Not surprising as their stuff is usually possible to understand.

This text is from a couple of days ago as drafted on a piece of paper. I am still in part holiday mode till Sidmouth Folk Week is over, well maybe for much of August. I don't really have mobile computing, still rely on a desktop such as now.

This draft is to explain a line of questioning for video around learning technology starting with Lancaster campus as a set. Clips for context now include the Sony Reader in the Waterstones on Alexanderplatz. the Learning Zone is under construction, a resource for web connections.

There was work on the idea of Learning Organisations but also critique of some aspects and related quality ideas. Networked Learning described technology applied in organisations. Similar issues were discussed around Networked Learning as around Learning Organisations.

Recently social networking online has demonstrated possibilities. Possibly some of the aims discussed for Learning Organisations are now easier to realise. Policy discussion for Further Education now often considers what students already expect from web design.

What is now possible? Could it meet some of the requirements identified in previous critiques?

A couple of sites could illustrate the issues. Critical Management includes content on Web 2.0 but could have more involvement online. Is it just about announcements for realtime conferences? Networked Learning conference has a Facebook aspect that seems currently to be about ease of logging in. What other connections are possible?

More notes from the fortnight in Lancaster. Actually still on holiday in a sort of way. Sidmouth Folk Week is about to start so Exeter is close to a world class event. Too much to miss out on so daily bus trips are possible. Not sure which blog to put this in but more on this later.

For some time I have been thinking about a book called The Going of "The Book" - my life and times. Never quite sure when there is enough material to make an effective case or what the time scope should be. Most of the Verso book The Coming of the Book is online so what happened next could be the Going. Not that the book will vanish completely. The idea of "the book" as an authority is challenged as there are other media and as a new book can be created quite quickly.

Now i think there are three time periods, maybe the basis for different books. "Hello Spiders" is a way to describe a set of web text and/or pages that have been more or less stuck. For a long time the positive links around quality and print have been difficult to demonstrate. So Hello Spiders is mostly about a set of tensions.

In the future there could be forms of communication in which the book is included. The London college of Printing is now the London College of Communication but it is still unclear what this means. Many people I meet just think it is a mistake.

I have some more jottings but these are groups of words that could be slides. So more later.

I am thinking more outside normal time. Maybe these three phases overlap or exist simultaneously for different people.

The hard copy Bookseller also has a section on digital news including a link to Tools of Change blog about how Scribd informs publishers of what is happening on the store. At the London Book Fair there was some worry about Scribd and copyright from journal publishers. Will this change by next year? My hard copy of Information World Review has arrived with a conference report linking to a website about university rankings through visibility of content.

After a bit more checking of links I went to the Exeter Central Library to look at hard copy. The Bookseller now emails me a daily sumnmary of news including a guess that a Kindle will reach the UK before Christmas. The hard copy has an editorial including an opinion that epub support on Kindle is something US publishers should have insisted on. Clearly the bookseller will push for this in the UK. Quite right too. Also saw an FT with a guess that Apple will launch a new iPod some time soon, mostly for movies but also with a guess that book publishers have been in touch. More detail than the references on the web. So once the summer break is over the ebook scene will move on. I am quite happy with the Sony Reader. Some delay while a memory card is moved from a desktop but at least something of a book is associated with delay and consideration. Just pumping a stream into a mobile device is not quite the same, whatever it is. But the world of education will just get used to it, ready or not.

Some web searching to add links

http://www.dius.gov.uk

but the name seems to be BIS, Business Innovation and Skills

The Twitter policy on Scribd

Henry Porter previously

Back in Exeter from a fortnight near Lancaster. More later on photos and video from the campus. I did sort of have web access but used only briefly so as not to test the patience of neighbors lending wifi. I took to blogging on paper so this is from Friday 24th-

The DTI has a Twitter policy. This I discovered through a search on the word "Scribd" where a document has been posted. Not called the DTI, someting else, but the building is still in Victoria Street. Over the weekend I will be back in Exeter so can check such things later.

I was prompted to search on "Scribd" by an article in the Guardian Tech pages (Page 6, 23 July). Bobbie Johnson interviewed Trip Adlert in San Francisco. Surely the store will be extended to the UK some time soon. Why else would this turn up? Previously Scribd has been mentioned only negatively by professional writers such as Henry Porter. the literary bit of the Guardian is on a different timescale to the Tech pages on a Thursday. Adler explains that the idea for Scribd started with his father, a neurosurgeon who wanted to publish faster than the normal eighteen months for a journal. "He just wanted to get things up there." So later versions may be more refined, better informed etc. but someting happens quickly. Will the people in Victoria Street think about this and UK universities? My impression is that most acadamic journal publishing is now digital but also more closed off to public space than when there was hard copy in libraries. Scribd has material around trade, industry, whatever but maybe not much of an overlap with journals. not sure about this, just a guess from memory. to be checked later this year. anyway, the education scope on a Guardian Tuesday could include Scribd as well.

I used to think there was a Guardian editorial policy to control the dissonance of various attitudes to the Web. the policy seemed to be to encourage association for a technical audience or online ; to offer maximum resistance in print or for a n audience associated with education or literature. Now i am not so sure there is a policy, just different people with different views. There may be a shift towards the Web eventually. the Readers Editor reports complaints about the reduction in printed pages. Once the defence for this includes the benefit of the website there may be less insistance on a special role for print, though print will continue as an aspect of news organisations.

Meanwhile I think I must have another look at my Twitter feed. It may be a way of linking blogs together.

Also at Lancaster I hope to look at the new Learning Zone alongside Alexanderplatz as I think of it. Moving images around in time and space is making more sense as online sets the pace, often through things I have just found though they were posted long ago.

Architecture for universities is a sign of relevance. The Infolab 21 building can be seen from the motorway and looks very technical. The Learning Zone I can only guess at from the images on the fence while it is being built. It strated out as fairly casula but then went a bit corporate. Maybe there is still a fence but I hope to post a photo later.

Quick check shows that InfoLab 21 is connected with similar topics to those discussed in Bristol. Wired Preston coming up on Tuesday.

So far I have only loaded to YouTube the presentation on Betavine. Steve Wolak has a blog where the slides may turn up.



Meanwhile Slideshare has two other presentations

Some thoughts about mobile innovation (OpenMIC July 2009)

View more presentations from Paul Golding.

App Stores Global Opportunities

View more documents from kgutteridge.

I went to the openMIC event last Thursday, intended for developers for mobile software. Ning site link here.

This has jumped me into a future with some kind of base. There is an energy about linking cloud content and mobile devices. Living in Exeter we sometimes find this more online than through people we meet. So there is a reason to visit Bristol once in a while. I think we might be better working out how to use the technology with original content than trying to compete on technology as such.

But anyway the main point seems to me to be that the debates about e-books and "technology enhanced learning" if that is still the approved academic term could be some way behind what is going on. The developers are using available technology. I now realise how much the Twitter interest follows on from earlier mobile messaging. there was almost no mention of the Kindle or e-book devices. Books are just a small part of a larger shift. There were references to knowledge and learning but just in the context of something already happening.

Not sure what is happening with "Networked Learning" and related projects. Design seems to wait on sorting out some critical issues. Later this month I will visit Lancaster and hope to find some journals in the library.

I have found an online source for some articles I looked at in journals a few months ago. Paper copies as was. Mostly on the drupa and IPEX blogs I am looking at the move to e-books and digital publishing. Academic journals have mostly moved online but one consequence is that they are even harder to find for non-academics. You used to be able to visit a library and read journals. now they are often only behind an id and password.

Anyway, Elsevier have a current offer of a free look at a copy of The Leadership Quarterly with a special issue on "Leadership and Organizational Learning" edited by Leadership and Organizational Learning edited by David A. Waldman, Yair Berson, and Robert T. Keller. It is interesting for me that they are still looking at Leadership while going back to Organizational Learning. I put it this way after the changes at Lancaster where the concentration on Learning Organisations was dropped in favour of Leadership. I found this quite confusing and it made it much harder to relate learning to anything to do with quality. Quality systems were pretty much out of the discussion as far as I could tell. So this new direction, at least new to me, not sure what else is going on, is interesting. The editors write in an introduction-

In sum, as advanced economies become more knowledge based, the importance of leadership for learning and innovation will increase, and the ability to create a climate for learning will likely become a valuable leader asset. This special issue of The Leadership Quarterly will help provide new knowledge and ideas in this direction.

I came across this through an article in Management Learning by Daina Mazutis and Natalie Slawinski - Leading Organizational Learning Through Authentic Dialogue.

We develop propositions that integrate the leadership and organizational learning literatures and offer suggestions for future research

.
It strikes me that none of this is from the UK though there is a link to Management Learning. I don't know what else is being written so link suggestions are welcome. If in a journal please suggest where to find the paper.

I have done a post on ReadG about two scenarios for the Guardian, following Jeff Jarvis and Buzzmachine or trying to carry on as before. I think most newspapers will fail to make the transition that Jarvis is trying to conjure up. Victor Keegan writes about the problems of the music industry where the web energy comes from new companies. The same could happen with news.

academics sometimes query why quality books usually give the impression that there is a route to success, that companies do not usually fail. this may be because the quality books are written for working managers and there is no need to be too depressing. However there could be academic studies of how companies fail for quality reasons. Quality being the bundle of attributes that the users experience.

For example the print Guardian seems to me to be failing to report publishing technology through companies such as Stanza and Scribd while allowing far too much knocking copy about bloggers. Hey this is only a blog. Proper paper may follow when there is a bit more evidence.