Runaway Prices, and Sound-Bites ...

They are kicking up a political storm. And, everyone is left wondering what hit them. I am reading so much about fuel prices, and combine this with the uncertainty around the 123 Agreement, that it seems almost as though the foundations of modern democracy are being shaken. Of course, one of the things anyone would be Hoping for would be restoration of the normal way the world goes round.

However, not many of the soundbites are pointing to this direction, as more and more of the high and mighty folks are busy pointing fingers and allocating blame for this situation, rather than trying to sit together and find a solution which is beneficial to the entire world. Sound bites which are coming through dont sound too encouraging, either ...

There is an article in the Times of India titled OPEC Chief Rules Out Return of Price Band. Interesting reading. According to this, the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell believes its hard to prove that the financial markets have anything to do with the price rise. While that may be, common sense ... There hasnt been any drastic change in either demand or supply side, so why such drastic changes in prices? Basic economics would suggest no such reason should exist. More interesting is the CEO of BP saying ...

Speculators believe in the fundamentals... the era of cheap oil is over as expanding economies like China and India are boosting demand.

Interesting ... I just did some back of the envelope calculations ... based on information presented in two sites ... Consumption data from NationMaster and indexmundi, and population data from wikipedia paints a picture quite different. Of course, these are all back of the envelope calculations, and dont represent exact figures, but the point is, that the per capita consumption of India and China is 10% of the American figure. Also, if we look at total consumption numbers, there is a difference of a magnitude of 10 between the two numbers. About time someone looked at the entire picture rationally?

India and Kamasutra

Whats the entire fascination with Kama Sutra about? There is so much being said and written about the Kama Sutra, that one wonders how the world would have survived without the Kama Sutra. Not that i am being puritanical here. Its just that the Kama Sutra is a book about love, not about sex. Its about human nature, and about the more between the ears than between the legs stuff!

Lot of times, we in India are indignant about the stereotypes that we find ourselves labelled with. Whether it is being called Land of Snakecharmers, or the Land of Kama Sutra ... But, the impression is that in all probability, we are ourselves responsible for most of these stereotypes. Take the example of Delhi airport ... There is a duty free store at departure lounge has a book store (actually, more a collection of shelves than a store) where there is one full shelf dedicated to different versions of Kama Sutra. Different edititions written by different people ... in short, there were more copies of the book in those shelves than all the other books put together. Now, if this is not creating the stereotype, then what is?

On an altogether different note ... the variety of booze which is available in the duty free store at arrival lounge in Delhi is definitely more than at Changi! Cheers to that ...

Enterprise Apps and Web 2.0

Something i have been thinking about ...

What is the basic difference between business applications the way they have been around for decades now, and the social computing tools which are developing today?

Not many folks are talking about the possibility of blending the two (the focus seems to be more on the usage of web 2.0 tools ...). Which means that as of today, the two are being seen as two different independant entities. Which need not necessarily be the case as these evolve. Which is because, end of the day, they are both addressing two different aspects of the same thing.

The way i see it, the success of social networking has been essentially because they are built around people. In other words, users are central to social networking. On the other hand, the software, the apps, for example, that you see in facebook, are peripheral. And the relationship between the two is that the peripheral applications are pushing value to the central user.

On the other hand, enterprise software, or business applications are just that ... they are not focussed on the user. As we must have seen, these are built keeping business processes as the central aspect of the enterprise, with people being the participants in the business process (who are essentially performing some pre-defined, well documented work, which might benefit from SOA, or some such other software tool ...). However, as i have written about earlier, there is always some aspect of such straightforward computational processes which is not necessarily straightforward.

And this, to my mind, is the point ... there has to be, over a period of time, the melting together of these two concepts. There has, to a large extent, come the understanding in organizations, that business processes shouldnt be seen as being isolated from people. What this should mean is that sometime soon, there should also be an evolution of software which combines the two? I have written about how SAP is already trying to do this.

Welcome all thoughts about what shape you think this could take?

Encouragement - Continued

Some reflections continuing from the previous post ... and, encouraged by Bill Ives writing about the Enterprise 2.0 conference ... Some of the things i have been thinking about, and talking about for some time ...

If we were to look at three levels of management in the organization ... the junior, the middle, and the senior ... ok, ok ... so, this is a bit of an oversimplification, but not too much, dont you think? ... i find that the junior folks (call them kids in my old age?) are the folks who are usually gung-ho about adoption of some of the social computing tools which are available to us today. These are folks who have almost grown up with social networking ... who started using these while at school, or at college ... and, who effectively use a variety of tools for managing their connections. In other words, these are the folks who live in a connected world.

The top management (older than me, if you insist ...), are the folks who are looking at adoption of social computing tools from the business returns perspective ... and, more often than not, these are the folks who, uncalculable ROI notwithstanding, are not necessarily the folks who are against these tools (ok, so this is a generalization, so please take this with a pinch of salt!).

The challenge to adoption, what i feel, is where the middle management comes in. These are the folks who arent as adept at social networking, or computing, as the junior folks are, and these are the folks who dont necessarily see the bigger picture, and hence, in their domain of the limited picture, with an inadequate understanding of these tools, there seems to be a kind of lack of understanding of where social computing could lead us, as individuals, or as organizations. And this is probably the part which we need to address as much as any other.

Web 2.0 -- Encouragement?

There is an interesting post that Andrew McAfee has written ... What he is talking about is whether Is Management the Problem? based on interactions with early adopters in the web 2.0 space.

There is the fact that one would expect managers to actively oppose these tools. And this is where the findings which emerge from the discussion are quite surprising. However, in my experience, i have found that managers are not actively opposed to the emerging world of social computing. The key word probably is actively. Why i would say this is because at times, the resistance is more indirect, and couched more in terms which are nothing to do with social computing in the first place.

Having said this, there is much to be said about the busyness factor. The fact is that in organizations, adoption of a lot of the social computing tools is not what it is when you go outside the firewall. This again is not surprising. Reason? Simple ... The way people operate on facebook, or any place outside the firewall, is not really the same as within the firewall. Something i have read about, and written about, too ... While there are incentives to spend some time on facebook everyday, update my status, and catch up with folks, if not going through some fun apps. On the other hand, wheres the incentive to do things which are definitely not half as much fun, and that too, have something to do with work!

Given this background, there is the issue of adoption. And, the fact that social computing is as good or as lousy as its adoption is. Which is where the cookie crumbles. There is, on the one hand, the scenario where users have no reason to adopt some of the social computing tools (ya, some folks understand their value, but hey ... why change the way things are done around here?), and on the other hand, there doesnt seem to be too much encouragement for changing them on the other hand.

Interesting thing is, it seems that a lot of us are being proved wrong when it comes to managers discouraging the idea of social computing. This is quite encouraging. Though, i am not sure whether it is too early to declare that spring is here. Like i have written before, things are changing. Question is, to what extent will they continue to change? The nature of boundaries is changing, decision making is shifting, and these together are having their own impact on the way work is being done. Question is ... to what extent would such changes be welcomed? Especially when they could probably change the basic way in which work is done, decisions made, and maybe, just maybe, power reallocated. This is early days yet, so it might be an excellent idea to watch these trends.

National Identity ...

No, this is not a jingoistic post ... I came across an interesting post by one of the folks whose blogs i follow regularly, when it comes to KM ... Here Dave Snowden has written about The Assertion of Identity. Interesting post ... And, this is where i have a few observations. When Dave talks about the history of language suppression (if i may coin a term), India (or maybe i should say South Asia?) has been the land where a multitude of cultures, languages, traditions, have not only existed, but flourished.

So, whether it is poetry in Punjabi, or literature in Bangla, or theatre, whether written in Marathi, or poetry in Malayalam (no, i am not using this to list the various languages that are spoken), all have flourished. Today, though, there is a changing trend. There seems to be some kind of "McDonaldization" (again, if i may coin the term, unless someone beat me to it!) happening, with more and more people coming round to a Bollywood way of things. Nothing much to complain about here, except that we need to make sure this wonderful diversity, which we are all proud of, is maintained, and continues to be cherished.

Whither Ethics?

There is a news piece i read in the Times of India ... titled Muslim backlash remark: CPM eats its words after SP criticism ... Not only is this an interesting article, it also brings out the levels to which politics has gone to. Criticism from the Muslims for the N-deal? Why? Because of the Israeli conflict with Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, and American relations with Israel? Sounds too simplistic, dont you think? One would credit the Muslim population in India for a lot more acumen than this.

But, thats not even the point. The point which one wonders about is more the parameters which seem to be governing political decision-making, and the dimensions which seem to be deciding the direction the political debate is taking. Maybe time for us to pause and think, as a nation? What are the things we should allow in the politics of the country, and what are the things which should be a no-no for all political parties? Maybe a debate on this?

While on the topic, there has to be far more effort in the direction of renewable resources than there is today. The beauty of renewable resources is that no country is unduly rich in them, for the sun shines equally on all. While the government is batting for the N-deal, there must also be a relook at the extent we are utilizing some of the renewable sources of energy Nature has so abundantly provided us? Solar, wind, hydel, tide ... you name it, the technology is available to harness it. Whats missing are the projects for doing this. And, the will.

Also, Honda launched its hybrid car in India. At a price at which nobody will buy it. Lots of coverage about the import duty making the car prohibitively expensive (104%, if i am not mistaken?). And, a lot of words being written about how the government should abolish this. Longer term, maybe this may not be the best option. Maybe the government should look more at promoting manufacture of these cars in India? The idea, more than promoting the technology, is to develop the eco-friendly mindset, which is so lacking in a lot of people of the country.

Enterprise Social Computing ...

Almost the topic of a white paper i came across. Stan Gargield, in his post refers to a software vendor, Trampoline Systems. Over at their website, there is a white paper which they have published. Interesting paper. What i liked about the paper is the simple way in which its written. Not too many heavy words getting you running for your thesaurus, and some reflection on the subject which is common-sensical. However, lot of the stuff you would have already heard, so probably not much new you would gather, i guess.

Few thoughts about the stuff they put there ...

1. The paper tries to draw a parallel between Consumer Social Networking (stuff we do today on a lot of sites out there), and Enterprise Social Computing (stuff we would like to see people doing behind the firewall). The impression i get is that the assumption is that these two fit neatly into mutually exclusive compartments. I dont think this works this way. Theres no telling where the professional ends, and the friends part begins. And, to a large extent, knowledge sharing happens based on the rapport people have amongst themselves. You are more likely to share thoughts with buddies than with casual acquaintances, arent you?

2. The primary concern the paper raises is about the possibility that people may not use this, making it redundant. This, i believe, is the largest challenge any KM practitioner has to contend with. I believe any KM initiative is as good as its adoption. Otherwise, you might have made a better mousetrap, but no point if the world is not beating the path to it. Something i have written about. This is, however, not to say that that is all there is to it. I also believe that KM has been happening for centuries, with or without a separate KM function. What seems to be missing is the direction, and the possibility of leveraging the potential provided by technology, to look at ways of fundamentally changing the way things are done around here.

3. One thing i really flipped for (not something which a lot of people actually say, and its even more difficult to do so, if you are a software vendor) ...

The aim of Enterprise Social Computing is not to drive users to a system and keep them there, rather to create possibilities for offline connection, collaboration and innovation by combining the disciplines of social networking and knowledge management.

Heavy ... but, makes sense!

4. Another important point the paper makes is about the automation of capturing profile/work information about people. On facebook, folks are updating information about themselves, because its for fun, and its a way of keeping friends and family updated. Dont expect them to do the same thing behind the firewall. Theres just no reason to. However, considering the myriad systems that are deployed in the typical organization, it can be quite easy to capture information on what things people are working on, on an ongoing basis.

All in all, seems an interesting thing (though, please note ... i am not trying to sell any product, nor have i even used the product ... hey ... i am writing about the paper! :-))

Training Scenario ...

Like i had mentioned earlier ... i had made a presentation to folks from the education/training industry. In this, i had tried to bring out my thoughts on the training scenario, at least what i have seen in India. I am not sure how different this is from other parts of the world, though i wouldnt think it would be much different.

The presentation can be found here (tried to work out how to embed the ppt here, but not much success ... maybe i am just too sleepy!).

Looking forward to how many folks out there agree or disagree with my views! Cheers ...

Social Learning ...

We have heard this before ... that learning is a social activity. And, our experience right through school and experience bears this out. Ask any of my pals from college, and they would vouch that getting past those exams was a very social process! There is an interesting post i came across ... Bridging the Gap between web 2.0 and higher education ... quite interesting, because this is something i have been thinking about, and writing about. Something which, to my mind, brings out the basic relationship between two apparently independant worlds of KM and Training. And, coming from a training background, into Knowledge Management, i think this is an area which i think i am interested in a lot.

This post represents some rather interesting thoughts ...

Firstly, this brings out the point, that unlike in a few e-learning implementations (few, not all ...), learning is something which is controlled by the student (or their boss ...), or, in other words, is more of a pull activity than a push from a centralized LMS.

Secondly, and this is where this is departing from the traditional e-learning (its already begun being used along with traditional ... the timescales sure are changing, arent they!), is in the interactivity this model visualizes among students. Whether it be in terms of discovery of trainings that the user would be interested in, or whether it be interactions in terms of "collaborating to learn", or whether it is in terms of generating content either as stand-alone content, or to supplement content generated by institutions.

In terms of discovery, i am looking at something like the facebook model ... something i have written about ... it could be as simple as finding out from fellow students what book to read for a particular topic, or, the courses which would be useful, because they have been taken by folks who are interested in something similar to what you are interested in, too. Basically, discovering trainings, courses, curricula, books, papers, and other resources based on what your network is doing, or simply based on search.

Collaboration to learn is essentially about sharing of thoughts, and ideas among students, and the teacher essentially transforming into a facilitator ... something i have written about before ... i have found, as a trainer, that students tend to learn far more from experimenting with each other than from the instructor. And this is something which ought to be part of our learning structures sooner rather than later.

Coming to the part of content ... and this is where the interesting part of the convergence of web 2.0 and learning comes ... Which is where i agree with something Michael Feldstein ...

You may want the structure and motivation a course offers, which could come from a recognised institution, or could be a user generated ‘course’ that is taken just for fun and run by an enthusiast. The key point is this – most LMSs are based on a centralisation philosophy, and as soon as you disaggregate the technology, you also decentralise control.

Interesting observation ... with the disaggregation of technology, e are looking at more and more content being created by learners themselves (now, this is nothing new ... we used to get a lot of notes from seniors, apart from photocopying notes from classmates who were the most sincere, and with the smallest handwriting ... the handwriting was a cost consideration), read blogs! And, this is where the structure of formal learning, and "discussional learning" could get merged going forward. They are already beginning to complement each other.