… to beat the winter blues, then here is a cheaper alternative. Go to one Mr Weinberger’s Site’s, and get the Quicktime video of his recent talk. It’s 87.3 MB, but well worth it. It’s about cracks in the foundations of knowledge, it’s likeable, it’s full of gems, and it is pure sunshine.

Euan [thanks for the tip] has already said that he would

“carry it with me everywhere in my Powerbook as a tonic when I find my spirits flagging”

and that’s very wise advice. Or you could make your family watch it instead of the Queen’s speech.

[Update: forgot to add link to Euan’s blog - feel very rude - now fixed]

November 24th 2004 | Comments(3) | Asides on DavidWeinberger, People video

Very much like the look of this new service from Google - it says it searches all those , ahem, dusty peer-reviewed ivory tower tomes!

One thing that would be really nice is to track the publications of academics you respect - Saved Search to RSS. Hmm. And I wonder whether the service puts academic bloggers higher than other academics?

[Thanks Ton for the link]

Does anyone remember putting on those clunky helmets and being demo-ed some VRML? Wasn’t that long ago. And I generally thought it was underwhelming to say the least. Dick Costolo of Feedburner looks to be revisiting VRML with a bang. As he says

“In my continuing artistic endeavor to bring you the best combinations of the retro and the leading edge, I am pleased to announce the world’s first VRML RSS reader, NewsWorld.”

And if you want to know what it might look like, below is a screenshot from the pre-alpha release.

Very sweet. You could geo-locate (albeit in VRML) virtual “community” clusters. Much like the “my mom works over there” idea.

[Thanks Anil for the pointer]

November 23rd 2004 | Comments(1) | Notes on 3D, RSS visualisation

I haven’t mentioned this yet, stupidly, but if you’re interested in Personla Knowledge Management, do go and have a look at the Knowledgenetworker Wiki

The aim of the Knowledgenetworker Wiki is to collect and share sources, articles, publications, and blog-entries on what we currently (and reluctantly) call Personal Knowledge Management.

It’s still a baby, but I’m hoping it’s got a bright future. And it will do if you help :)! Even if only by adding suggestions as to how to make it better.

Following an interesting discussion about Online Communities over at AOK. The moderators, Jenny Ambrozek, and another AOKer, Joe Cothrel look to have done some interesting work on Online Communities

Andy Boyd makes a quick comment that talking always frames your thoughts.

Isn’t it great how explaining yourself outloud to others, allows you to self reflect better then mulling it over in your own mind?

What’s nice, I think, is that this same dynamic holds whether or not the ‘others’ are real. Even writing for an imaginary audience helps tighten up your thinking. One of the things that I’ve found writing this blog is that I often start off writing something (thinking I have an idea), but after typing away for a bit, I give up. 9 times out of 10 this is because the idea was, to varying degrees, boring or just plain bilge. The other time seems to be when, through thinking it through, I realise that there’s something else I need to look in to further.

As the Big Moustache himself said,

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”

Trying to explain yourself to others (whether they are real or imagined) is a great discipline. and one where failure, happily, seems to be just as valuable as success.

Got thrown off the horse by a miscommunication with my service provider, but now firmly back in the saddle.

Funny - you get so used to blogging that when for some reason you can’t, it feels like you’re suffering from phantom limb syndrome. You try to write but you forget you don’t have an arm.

November 19th 2004 | Comments(2) | Asides on monkeymagic

Two quite-possibly-biased individuals have said some nice things about the PKM workshop (They were both involved on one level).

Sami Kazi, over at KnowledgeBoard, notes that

I was one of the participants at the interesting PKM workshop. With a turnout of about 50 active participants, engaging in dialogue through the open space method, it was fun trying to digest the views, concerns, and perspectives of all those in the room. As mentioned on the front page of KnowledgeBoard, a workshop report will soon come through followed by a summary of the many take aways from the workshop. My sincere thanks to the organisers and participants for not only making it an engaging experience (one of the best at KM Europe as noted by many) but for setting the groundwork for what I am sure will be an interesting conversation.

And Lloyd Davis (in a comment on Lilia’s blog)

“…for those who weren’t there, people were saying it was the best bit of the conference and why wasn’t the rest of it just like this.”

Anyway, that sort of feedback and some old thoughts from John Seely Brown’s keynote in Amsterdam, re art, attention, and groups, got me thinking about trying to organise something in Oxford. I already vaguely talked it over with Lilia and Florian at the Oz bar, but it’s now beginning to seem achievable. (Ton, are you interested?
read on »

November 12th 2004 | Comments(3) | Life on business, events, questions seminar

In July, at Blogwalk 3, Ton, Lilia and I decided it would be good to run a workshop on Personal Knowledge Management during KMEurope. And thanks to the work of Ed Mitchell of Knowledge Board, Lilia’s persistence and patient technical aid from Ton, and some brainstorming between the three of us, it happened. Overall, it seems to have been a success - a little over fifty people turned up, and people seemed to enjoy it.
read on »

November 11th 2004 | Comments(3) | Life on Amsterdam, Creativity, events, individual, KM social computing