Derek Chirnside

I'll just be lurking here I think.  I have a week's holiday soon, and Easter before that, and start of term after that.  On the other hand, what better fun to have during a holiday than some gaming?

My connection with gaming is largly vicarious.
I work with Tim Greig who is a serious gamer (He has a state of the art setup - computer plus Wii) and is doing some research in gaming and second life.  He is my human delicious tag for "gaming and education and VR and SL and WOW", and tells me things I need to read and keep up with.

Internet connectivity is an issue sometimes here in NZ.  The bandwidth sometimes just does not quite support the stuff needed.

-Derek

I can't join you sorry, 80th birthday today for my mother etc etc.  I agree with Tia, a fascinating discussion.  We have still many open loops in our thinking and percolating of ideas, but hey, we live with that. . . .

The discussion has come at a good time for me.  Several reflections:

1. Chat/TC.  The chat TC was great.  I treat these as an existential link up, more in the realm of brainstorming/birthing/splattering ideas around than deeper engagement.  Or maybe it is like this: deep comes quickly, but by virtue of the medium we move on quite quick, and it's only later we reflect.
   I was hoping to invite you to trial our new chat application.  But it's not quite ready for beta yet. 
   
   It has the option to have as many input dialogue entry screens as you want down the right - and so if you are in the middle of typing a considered post (ie like 20 words) you can interject with YeAAAAAAAAh!! in another entry box and then get back to your post.  OR you can temporarily take on a faciltators role (notice I'm trying top change my paradigm here) and have several posts 'lined up' for posting.  OR you can take a quick visit to the web, find your URL working in one dialogue box while carrying on the main thred in another one. 
   
   It will also give the option to tie a current IM to a previous one much higher up the list.
   
   Now my presenting problems: is this going to work?  Will it merely enlarge the gap between the fast typers and the others? (Who knows)
   
   
2. While the chat was good, we certainly diverged a little off Nancy's question "How to encourage facilitators".  and more to the point "How could Nancy develop her course?"  Good questions.
   
   In trying to cudgel my brain to stay on this topic I do note this: at the moment, everytime I try to think about teaching facilitation (which is my current preoccupation), my thoughts also stray over to the notion to community.  And then soon it is in the areas of learning.  What is learning?
   
   
3. Aside: Tim Greig sent me this link to quite a nice post (graphic linked below)
   
   

A small quote from the post: "Every time I give a talk, someone always asks, "That's all good and nice that helping users learn is the key to creating passionate users... but who's going to do all that extra work? Who's going to make the extra tutorials and better docs?" Answer: your user community. Think about all the things a strong user community can do for you: tech support, user training, marketing (evangelism, word of mouth), third-party add-ons, even new product ideas. And that's not including any extra sales you might make on community/tribe items like t-shirts, stickers, and other gear" 

from Kathy Sierra (Who I never heard of until yesterday, although her logo is familiar and it may be altseimers).

I'd heard the bit about getting rich via blogging, but her other point was quite new to me.

4. I tried the [new to me] file upload here to show you a picture of my son's new coffee machine, but is not working just quite right yet.  But it will be a great new addition to be able to upload files.



Anyway, enjoy the SL trip, thank everyone, thanks Nick, signing off for now. .

I'm signing out for the weekend.  Just got some things to push through that need some attention, and I want to got for a hike.  Pick up later.

Enjoyed the chat/TC chaotic as it was.  Thanks everybody.  The real work is actually to cme to process the stuff.   'Met' some new people.  But how come you guys are so casual about your bios and pics here?  OK, I know mine is out of date too, I'll fix that.  Maybe this is a sign of the distributed world we live in no doubt.  Our bios could be a single link to our web page/blog/bebo.com space.

This is a great discussion Nick.  Someone mentioned the challenge of gathering the ideas in a distributed space.  Lots of ideas here. 

I think this is why I'll try to join the chat.  How to answer this question?  My thinking is a little scattered at the moment.  Lots of fragments.

It's like the guy who tries to shave, lathering up, running the blade over and ends up with the blood washing the soap off.  He did all the things he could see - on the surface.  But what he didn't know is that you are supposed to pucker up to tense the skin a little underneath the soap.  There is something vital going on that he didn't see.  This is sometimes how I feel.  Or to change the metaphor, you cannot see some things that are going on, but yo can see some hints, like triangulation to get a fix.

The social structures are changing.  here is one new one:
Coagulations.  A biological/chemical term.  There is a big group, but a few people just attract and stick together.  I've see this happen just in the last month.  60 people, in several different business units, with several projects on the go, several working groups, lots know each other, some new people - suddenly a few people (like 6) meeting for lunch.
The common feature?  Some factor in their career background which I won't name here.  I could not believe the progress we have made, all under the radar, on official various projects and birthed a few others.
Two people caused this to happen, but it is likely none of the projects could have functioned without all of us being there.
I first thought of the connectors in Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point", then realised all the roles were there:

From wikipedia: Gladwell identifies three types of people who have the power to produce social epidemics:

• Connectors: Those with wide social circles. They are the "hubs" of the human social network and responsible for the small world phenomenon.

• Mavens are knowledgeable people. While most consumers wouldn't know if a product were priced above the market rate by, say, 10 percent, mavens would. Bloggers who detect false claims in the media could also be considered mavens.

• Salesmen are charismatic people with powerful negotiation skills. They exert "soft" influence rather than forceful power. Their source of influence may be the tendency of others, subconsciously, to imitate them rather than techniques of conscious persuasion.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tipping_Point_(book)

I've thought of this as a grid for analysis, not just for social epidemics.
I'd surmise there is a notion of completeness for "participatory facilitation" to happen.  Certain functions need to be there in a pool of people in a group/network/team.  Provided by facilitation, or emergent from within.  Could a facilitator pick up strongly in one area and see the other areas emerge.

Why I think this is true is from sort of reverse engineering.  "Ok it worked then.  Now it doesn't.  What has changed?  <thinks> OK, things were fine when Joe left.  But when Sally left . .  turned to Custard. <thinks> What did Sally take with her?  What did she provide when she was here?" 

Social structures are changing . .    so are the places where people leave their mark.  To keep in touch with things nowadays, you need to be able to keep up with a range of places.

I've tried to banish the word 'manage'.  Do we 'manage time' ? No we live in it.  Do we 'manage people'?
OK.  Got to go.  This is not finished, and the bit in the middle is not clear . .  I may or may not get back to this tonight.

Hmm.

This will be 3am for me.  :-)  I'll be there . . .
Do I stay up or rely on the alarm?


I will try to post something late, but really I've been in lurker mode.

-Derek