2.0

I found an inspiring article by Stephen Downes, from the National Research Council of Canada, about e-Learning 2.0, in accordance with the new movement Web 2.0, where users are becoming more and more the centre and main agent of what is happening on the web: they are acquiring the properties of communication networks.

I think maybe Tim Berners-Lee –the world wide web creator- could visualise this very nature of the web, from that original intention to create a collaborative medium for academic researchers working together at a distance. The Internet is achieving now its proper and unavoidable shape and nature. It shouldn’t be seeing as a medium any more, but just as a network –a "platform", Downes prefers- of interconnected powerful nodes. And every one of these nodes are users themselves, talking and listening and therefore creating, sharing, repurposing, distributing and even cataloguing contents. No intermediaries seem to be necessary. Who needs a journalist anymore? And even more...who needs a traditional teacher for getting access to knowledge, for building new knowledge with others, rather than blindly follow up a course topic or any assigned subject. That knowledge which is useful and meaningful to "my interest", right now, and for actual and immediate purposes.

Downes goes further when he says that we are at a social revolution, where openness is not only technological but even attitudinal: "sharing content is not considered unethical; indeed, the hoarding of content is viewed as antisocial...Information is something meant to be shared", he says. We could wonder if this is only a "trend for openness" due to and derived from innovation and fascination on the technological possibilities. Could this trend stay the same for longer? Well, the answer is as long as innovations on a natural open network itself are coming out...

I agree anyway with Downes: there is a revolution in the way we access and work with knowledge. I don’t know whether it is a social revolution yet, but some important impact is making on the way people understand power, since power more than ever is on their own hands. I connect with Downes when he writes: "In short, the structures and organization that characterized life prior to the Internet are breaking down... Consumers are talking directly to producers, and more often than not, demanding and getting new standards of accountability and transparency. Often, they inform the productive process itself, and in many cases, replace it altogether. Passive has become active. Disinterested has become engaged. The new Internet user may not vote, but that is only because the vote is irrelevant when you govern yourself".

All this stuff sooner or later, in more and more places, will become unavoidably true.

New challenges are in designing and using methodologies to help communication processes on this network to be meaningful rather than disperse or chaotic. I see such methodologies not only on virtual communities, but also in applications like weblogs, a "personal learning centre", where content is reused and remixed according to the user’s own needs and interests (as my original intention when creating management + ethics for e-learning purposes).

Related links

Stephen Downes on E-learn Magazine: E-learning 2.0
Stephen Downes weblog: OLDaily
[Tags]:Web 2.0,Controversy about our "Web 2.0" service mark (O'Reilly version),Web 2.0 trademark (George Siemmens comments),IT@Cork version (Tom Raftery's comments)

The essential reason that makes things to happen

Brave and essential. Euan Semple, ex-head of KM at BBC, dares to talk about an unusual term in management. A concept always hidden or dismissed in our current learning in this field, but certainly somehow prevalent: he talks about love.

It’s not about "loving our work" or "loving success"...but about that very intrinsically motivating force that makes things to happen. As Semple mentions: a deep sense of connection with each other at work, a depth of purpose beyond the every day that sees customers as more than merely stepping stones on the way to returning that value to the shareholders.

"Where did all this come from, where did the idea that the most powerfully motivating force in the world had nothing to do with business? We spend most of our adult lives in the workplace and at work we bring about the most important and long lasting changes to our society and our planet, and yet we are not encouraged to talk in terms of love" – he says.

What I admire in his note (published in Knowledge Board and adapted from a blog post in Euan Semple's weblog "The Obvious?") is the reflection on the essential reasons for being 8 hours per day / 5 days a week in "that place". I remember some of the original ideas about management from Charles Handy or Peter Drucker.

Semple describes a situation that perfectly define what we are talking about: "Three months ago we had a closing down party for DigiLab, my small but perfectly formed department at the BBC, and the next morning I started to write a post about love at work and what a powerful motivating force it can be. But I stopped myself. I let myself be influenced by those grown up voices in my head telling me not to be so silly - certainly not in public! But the warmth and affection we felt for each other, for our physical space in Television Centre and yes, sorry guys, for the punters who we dealt with on a daily basis over the years had more to do with love than anything else I can think of and certainly little to do with those extrinsic motivators - money, corporate goals and efficiency that we we were meant to have taken so seriously".

Turning back to motivating factors, here we have again the proud of ourselves, based on our collective achievement. Internet and the collaborative tools designed for working, learning and sharing knowledge are key drivers if well used and understood. Web 2.0, much more plural and decentralised at building knowledge is a powerful example.

Related links

Euan Semple's weblog The Obvious?

All you need is love