Personal Blogs

As I boy I had a Phillips Atlas. I shaded in all the counties if the UK as in my peripatetic way I stayed with friends, divorced parents and went on holiday. (I still have it stored in a Really Useful box in a garage).

Decades later I know the few counties that I haven't ticked off. I am not widely travelled: France regularly, otherwise the odd trip to Hong Kong, US, Spain, Sweden, Cyprus ... However, it would appear that my blog is picked up all over the planet. My task then is to have views from those countries not yet picked out in the terrific metrics that are provided by Wordpress.

Why not China? Is Wordpress blocked. How about Finland? I don't think Greenland is feasible.

What makes a university campus such as Harvard or Oxford a hotbed for entrepreneurs? Is this recreated in closed networks online or at Residential School. How come some buildings induce mental stagnation and disaffection whilst others are a delight? Where (no company or organisation names) have you worked where the architecture, landscaping and office lay-out are conducive to innovation?

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tony-hsieh-las-vegas-zappos/

Serendipitous interactions, or what Tony Hseih calls 'spontaneous collisions' between people, are what spark ideas and facilitate relationships that lead to stronger ties and more ideas.

Have you worked for such a company?

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/23/tony-hsieh-las-vegas-zappos/

Hsieh calls his people "culture magicians". Steve Jobs designed this into fabric of Pixar and Apple.

'There's never been a breakthrough as a result of writing a memo, breakthroughs occur when two or more people, get inspired, have fun, think the unthinkable'. Lars Kolind, Oticon.(in Mayle 1998) 

Completely blown away by trailer for the new iPad.

Yesterday I read that tablets (iPad will take 74%) will replace laptops. I doubted this until I watched this trailer.

It has what I need.

I have to decide: laptop, tablet or desktop. I don't have the luxury of all three. I doubt I can afford two. The iPad does it.

This is my approach, it works for me.

Everything goes in here: notes from what I read or come across, sometimes so I didn't lose track of them, course related comments I post on people's blogs too.

A good deal of this remains hidden (private), however I will sometimes 'expose' notes and cryptic thoughts in case someone can make sense of it for me, or chivvy me along to construct some rounded thoughts and sentences with the stuff.

There's some random stuff too.

Tagging matters immensely.

'Search' leaves it to chance, which might help you serendipitously to come across a thought or note you had, but is scrappy and can be time wasting, rather be tag happy and have a system.

Everything gets the module reference, if there is an activity reference this is added as a single word such as 'h807activity3.4' or some such so that it can be searched for and found with ease.

Come TMA time I revisit all the content from that block and start adding the tag, for example, 'h807tma2', or as I'm currently doing 'b822tma3'.

Gathered in one search list I then go through each relevant post refining my thinking.

At some stage I may add further tags to identify arguments or to give it a chronology if that isn't apparent. I then cut and paste to a word document.

I MAY assemble in PowerPoint simply to help shuffle ideas around.

A system?

Hardly. Each to their own. I panic like anyone else over an assignment but know the stuff is here and having done the reading and activities and having shared my thinking and had this coloured and shaped by others that I ought to be able to assemble a cogent case.

Tags are strategic, Search is more random.

I switch between the two when revisiting note

I've signed up for a social media course.

It is entirely online and applied. I can apply it as I go along. It uses a combination of short pieces to camera (a minute or so) with text, webinars and written assignments.

Self-paced.

It's taken me 13 months to commit having been impressed with a presentation at Learning Technologies 2011 (see this blog, February 2011), seen the team at a stand at Training Technologies last week and then doing a 7 point taster yesterday.

1) Keep it niche

You come to trust a person to have something to say about 'x' rather than the entire alphabet.

2) Keep it fresh

Depending on your ambitions update twice a day Yes, you have to have a point of view, no you don't have to make the posting public but you need to build a 'body of work'. 250 words will do, a picture and comment and from time to time a link and snip from something you have stumbled upon.

3) Keep it authentic

There's a light, conversational style that i think of as 'BJ' (Blog Jocky).

4) Read and comment on blogs you like

Reciprocity is vital, there is a virtuous circle of being read and contributing to other people's blogs. Vary the pace and approach. It works to include photos and video, though you risk setting yourself too great a task if you imagine you can generate or load a video clip every time.

5) Watch the stats

You can understand what makes your blog tick, what keeps it vibrant. It is motivating to know you are being read.

6) Promote

Put your content in front of those who are most likely to find it of interest or value by sharing it with specific Linkedin groups and by getting it out on Twitter as part of pertinent conversations.

I wouldn't usually do this kind of thing, but you can do the OU a favour, prove a point to the world and be in line to win an iPad 3. Just go along to the OU Facebook page and 'like', for further Brownie Points add a comment.

Combined this sets us against other univwrsities. somehow we were beaten to the top slot in 2011.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=295349760517763&set=a.295346917184714.93370.139403029445771&type=1

I started in 2001, then took a break.

Back for the last two years with an MA a module away and more to follow for certain: MRes? MBA? Another MA in History of Art or Creative WritinG.

Plastination of a Ballet Dancer 

The skin removed from a human body reveals a mess.

The walls removed from a business does the same. It has happened whether or not we like it, even without Wikileaks we are revealing more of ourselves than ever before.

Glass Skull by Rudat

Our minds are a mess if our sculls are made of glass: mine is, I expose and disclose and share my thougts.

Posting notes isn't laziness, it is mess: it is 'messy stuff'.

It is the beginning of something, or the end, it is both unstarted and unfinished. Notes go down well in our 'wiki- world' as it makes space for others to interject, to correct and fix in a way that feels less like criticism and more like collaboration.

Once was a time I'd pick out every misplaced apostrophe, especially concerning 'its', now I care less, ditto spelling. Would I have hewrd the incorrect apostrophe on the possessive of its? Would I have known that I'd hit the 'w' key instead of the 'a' typing as I am with my left hsnd only propped up in bed. And what about the missing 'h' I've left out of 'thougts'?

Too late, I've said it now and my next idea is coming through.

Facilitating creative thinking

Imagery and metaphor
Group Fair
7 workshops
5 electives
General precepts
Specific techniques
Overall methodologies

To tackle concerns that really matter to you.
Reflecting on practice and networking
Understand what can inhibit creativity in a group
Self aware of how your own thinking may help or hinder
Creative problem solving (CPS) solves problems but splitting the process into a series of stages.

STAGE ONE

Exploration of and definition of the problem.
Open up: explore different angles. Clarification. Ask why? Repeatedly. Or the nub of the problem expressed as. 'how can we ...'
QQ for clarification only. 
Individuals write up an expression of the problem (as provocatively as they like). The client chooses one.
QQ redefined the problems using  what if ...  or a strange way of looking at this ... or it could be likened to ... or I wish that ... Close down: select key problem
N.B. use your skill in judging which technique is most appropriate for the problem as presented.

STAGE TWO

Alternative ways of dealing with the problem.
Generate ideas and plans
Open up: consider alternative ideas
Close down: select preferred option

STAGE THREE

Work out the implementation of the way forward
Open up: plan supporting action
Close down: undertake action

STAGE FOUR

Evaluate
Open up: monitor progress
Close down: adapt action
Seems rigid, in practice it is more relaxed and iterative (like a squad session plan, then more intuitive and tailored. The mind is not like the body, and the outcomes are far less easy to define compared to the need to 'go faster for longer'.
Getting off the 'mental tramlines'.
VS premature evaluation
To see something from various perspectives
To force the mind to go beyond its usual assumptions