The Jay-Blog

Imagination is more important than intelligence

"Many engineering deadlocks have been broken by people who are not engineers at all. This is simply because perspective is more important than IQ." (Nicholas Negroponte)

*Never set a goal.* "An English historian once observed, 'He goes farthest who knows not whence he goes.' There's much truth in this. If you have a goal, you're constrained by the goal. Organizations must have a coherent philosophy, a clear direction, and the strategies to make the journey successful." (John Sperling)

Upgrade

Just upgraded to Moveable Type version 2.61.

The new MT PlugIns Directory

The textism plugin I just installed. Textism? It enables you to do the formatting shown on the next page.

Block Formatting

For each new paragraph, you may begin the paragraph with one of the following markers:

• hn. A lowercase ‘h’, followed by the number 1-6, followed with a period (.) and a space begins a heading tag. The tag will be numbered after the number you specify. The entire block will be enclosed in the header tag.



• bq. A lowercase ‘bq.’ and a space will define a blockquote block.


• p. A lowercase ‘p.’ and a space will define a paragraph tag. This is the default if no other marker is specified.


• # A block beginning with ’#’ and a space will start a numbered list. Each additional new line beginning with a ’#’ and a space will become a new numbered item.



• * A block beginning with ’’ and a space will start a bulleted list. Each additional new line beginning with a ’’ and a space will become a new bulleted item.


• == A block beginning with ’==’ will cause Textile to turn off its formatting rules until it reaches the ending ’==’ (which may be at the end of the current paragraph or some later paragraph).



• Wiki Tables You can use Wiki-style syntax to build simple tables.

All these markers must be at the beginning of the new paragraph, without any leading spaces. If line breaks exist within the block, they will be translated into <br /> tags automatically. And optionally, you may add a CSS class name in parenthesis preceding the period of the heading, blockquote or paragraph markers. If a CSS class name is given in this way, it will be assigned to the block tag.

You may also use regular block formatting HTML tags if you prefer.

Inline Formatting

Within each block, the following inline formatting shortcuts are provided:

• _emphasis_: Text surrounded underscores will be formatted using the <em> tag.


• *strong* Text surrounded by asterisks will be formatted using the <strong> tag.



• ??citation?? Text surrounded by a pair of question marks, it will be formatted using the <cite> tag.


• -deleted text- Text surrouned by a single dash will be formatted using the <del> tag.



• +inserted text+ Text surrounded by plus signs will be formatted using the <ins> tag.


• ^^superscript^ Text surrounded by caret characters will be formatted using the <sup> tag.



• ~_subscript~ Text surrounded by tilde characters will be formatted using the <sub> tag.


• linktexturl Text within quotes followed with a colon and a URL (fully qualified or relative) will be formatted into a hyperlink. You can also add a title for the <a> like this: linktexturl.



• A URL (fully qualified or relative) within exclamation characters will be formatted into an <img> tag. Other options available:
  
  
  
  • ‘alt’ text:
  
  
  • CSS class:
  
  
  • Width, height (positional): !image_url widthxheight!
  
  
  • Width, height: !image_url widthw heighth!
  
  
  • Width, height (percentage):
    
    Percentages only work with local files, where the actual width and height can be determined. The “Image::Size” Perl package must be present for this. This sets both the width and height to 50% of it’s normal value.
  
  
  • Width, height (percentage):
    
    This sets the width to be 20% of it’s original value, and the height to be 30% of it’s original value.
  
  
  
  



• ABC Uppercase alpha-numeric characters followedby text in parenthesis will be formatted into an <acronym> tag (using the parenthetic text for the ‘title’ attribute).

A series of two or more uppercase alpha-numeric characters will be wrapped with a <span> tag and assigned the ‘caps’ class.

You can also use regular HTML tags when composing your entries. Also, special

characters within your entry text such as <, >, &, international and symbol characters will automatically be escaped into equivalent HTML entities.

If you use a <pre> tag, it isn’t necessary to escape special characters within it— they will be automatically escaped, until the closing </pre> tag is reached.

Character Formatting

• ™ translates to ™


• © translates to ©


• ® translates to ®


• nxn When letter ‘x’ is surrounded with digits, it is translated to the × character.

Additionally, the raw symbols for ™, © and ® will be escaped to HTML entities. Most international characters and symbols will also be escaped to HTML entities.

Unescaped & characters within tag attributes will be escaped automatically.

If you have the Smarty Pants Movable Type plugin installed, it will automatically be used to ‘educate’ your quotes, ellipsis and dashes to their typographic counterparts.

Credits

The MT-Textile text formatting code for Movable Type was written by me, Brad Choate. The Textile formatting syntax was developed by Dean Allen. Many thanks to Dean for his permission to adapt Textile for use in Movable Type.

Interesting Links

CORANTE ON BLOGGING

Fotoblogs!

Presentation skills

With a number of presentations coming up, it's time to review the presentation process. Years ago I took the Decker Communications course and found it worthwhille.

Decker suggests starting by writing up small Post-It notes in four areas:

1. POINT OF VIEW. What is your stance, attitude, opinion about the subject?
   
2. LISTENERS. Who are they? What are their demographics, needs, attitudes?
   
3. BENEFITS. How will your listeners benefit by taking the action step?
   
4. ACTION STEPS. What do you want your listeners to do?

Decker also recommends these communication skills:

1. Eye communication
   
2. Posture/movement
   
3. Gestures/facial expression
   
4. Dress and apearance
   
5. Voice/vocal variety
   
6. Language/non-words
   
7. Listener involvement
   
8. Humor
   
9. The Natural Self

Beyond these, I want to tell some good stories -- easy to follow and more interesting.

My earlier notes on giving presentations are here. Off the top, the most important advice that sprung to mind then was:

• tell stories, not what appears on a PowerPoint slide

• use pictures -- graphics and mental images -- to convey the message

• put yourself in the listener's shoes first, last, and always

• practice, practice, dry run, practice, revise, practice, edit, practice

• never read a speech

• talk with one member of the audience at a time

Techniques that are good enough that I've shamelessly ripped them off are:

• present a series of "objects," not a fully structured presentation; let the listener choose the sequence

• before the presentation, ask individuals in the audience what they want to/expect to hear

• put the questions at the beginning, not just the end.

Don't ask "How am I doing?"
Rather, ask "How are they doing?"

Nano-bio-info-cogno (NBIC) convergence

Interim paper from the National Science Foundation on info convergence. Says Jim Spohrer,

The basic idea is that information is encoded in atomic systems, molecular biological systems (DNA, cells), digital computer systems (bits), and cognitive systems (neurons, brains, people). Social systems (memes) are another way in which information is encoded. As these separate sciences advance, more interactions are occuring between them. And, here is the big speculation thought, an understanding of how information is encoded and recoded into each of these systems may allow for rapid improvement in human performance.

Perhaps the convergence is more than one hundred years away, since physicists since the late 1800's have been working to create a unified theory of the physical realm -- nevertheless, the speculations in this material (and most of this work is speculation) are good imagination-stretching exercises for thinking about how future generations may collaborate, interact with their world, learn, and evolve. Fascinating speculation, but not for the faint of heart, since much of this material from the National Science Foundation (NSF) reads more like science fiction than science fact.

Is my influence at work here? I told Jim I enjoyed reading his science fiction when the raw reports were coming out on the web a few months back.

Googlism.com

Ask Googlism.com what eLearning is and it will tell you:

elearning is not knowledge management
elearning is child's play
elearning is live ·
elearning is burgeoning
elearning is focused on the individual learner
elearning is the next big thing
elearning is technology
elearning is as varied as education itself

elearning is used by organisations that need to re elearning is not important elearning is utilizing technology to increase the effectiveness and accessibility of learning elearning is critical to it's future health elearning is the key by melanie liew elearning is best defined as the category consisting of training and learning over the web elearning is instructional content delivered over the internet elearning is likely to be found in its potential to provide elearning is giving pharmaceutical companies faster elearning is easy and engaging elearning is the use of digital technologies to equip pharmaceutical company employees elearning is a way for individuals or groups to learn new knowledge and skills using computer network technologies elearning is learning that is supported by information and communication technologies elearning is not only changing how we learn elearning is a dynamic process that provides learners with real elearning is the delivery of instructional material in electronic formats elearning is a powerful learning system that makes knowledge and information accessible to you elearning is a elearning is internet based training and instruction elearning is quickly becoming the ?enterprise initiative of fashion elearning is likely to go and how quickly it may or may not get there that we talk about it our other venues and elearning is a unique web site specializing in online instructor elearning is also significant elearning is a hot new area that leverages internet technologies in the delivery of instruction elearning is today the most important area of research elearning is an emerging industry that utilizes high technology to provide learning elearning is often "self elearning is more than using technology for "just in time" training elearning is web elearning is an effective elearning is great elearning is a social reality elearning is being flaunted as a compelling new approach to quickly and effectively learn these necessary new elearning is teaching and learning via the use of digital resources elearning is going to change the world or at the very least our entire learning behavior elearning is modular elearning is cur elearning is based on branded educational content that is proven to be high quality elearning is not about a fresh start elearning is taking a lot of criticism at the moment and remaining focused on the learner is the key to avoiding ineffective elearning elearning is a key strategy that leading companies are using to stay ahead of their competition elearning is nothing like training elearning is the outcome of a demanding supply chain for knowledge ? some have called this multi elearning is elearning is firmly committed to the view that its credibility with its business partners elearning is underperforming elearning is dependent on having a web elearning is learning elearning is part of the learning process but it would be very foolish to ditch what you do in favour of a technology elearning is fairly thin on the ground elearning is growing elearning is growing as the world continues to re elearning is usually implemented over a network elearning is a cost elearning is pleased to announce the completion of a distribution agreement for its wbt manager™ learning management system with elearning is being embraced by schools elearning is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such other web elearning is a disruptive innovation elearning is not practical elearning is the convergence of learning and the internet elearning is fun and enjoyable elearning is a journey for every student to acquire the requisite skills and literacy in the digital world that awaits them elearning is a response to the scalability and cost issues of face elearning is the delivery of content via all electronic media elearning is motivating and enjoyable online learning offers more opportunities elearning is the delivery of learning and training using electronic media elearning is set to take off in europe elearning is not to repeat what has been done before elearning is itself not without its problems elearning is clear elearning is found to be a major part of the elearning is not necessarily easier than the traditional classroom learning elearning is flexible and convenient elearning is becoming an essential component to companies' overall business strategies to attract and retain employees

Thinking about 2012

What should business be prepared to address in the next decade? The Global Business Network asked fifty well-known people and has shared selected quotes on their site. The whole lot will appear in What’s Next? Exploring the New Terrain for Business.

These quotes grabbed my attention:

If you made a model of the ideal global economy, does it make the most sense to have only a few specialists make the things we need and have them ship those things to wherever they’re needed, or does it actually make more sense to have many local origins for those things? Kevin Kelly

In China, they’re discovering that when you redecorate your bathroom and get ten pairs of platform shoes and a nose job, you’re still unhappy. Orville Schell

The way to create healthy, vibrant economies and societies is through diversity. We know that scientifically. Any system that loses its diversity loses its resiliency and is more subject to sudden shocks and changes from which it can’t recover. The corporatization of the world is the loss of diversity—it’s forcing uniformity upon people. Paul Hawken

That’s what this Cultural Revolution is about: How everything fits together than now appears disconnected. It’s the search for coherence in what is increasingly incoherent. We’re trying to get into the box. We are trying to create a new box. Thinking outside the box turns out to be so yesterday. Joel Garreau

You can’t have part of the world where there’s a small, aging bubble of Western elites and then this massive, throbbing, younger, and increasingly impoverished group of people. Jaron Lanier

The question is whether we’ll have a youth culture with old demographics. Youth culture, geezer bodies—does that work? Kevin Kelly

I believe we are heading toward a single global culture. That’s a very scary thought to most people because they see that if they’re not part of the dominant culture, then their culture will be wiped out, their values will be wiped out, the things that are important to them will be wiped out. Yet, I think that it is absolutely inevitable. Danny Hillis

There’s a perfect storm coming at the 100-nanometer level. Information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are all converging on that scale. Stewart Brand

Education is where medicine was about 100 years ago. A hundred years ago, most of medicine was empirical—somebody tried it and figured out whether it worked or not. Gradually, over the last century, medicine has become half scientific and half empirical. Over the next few decades, I suspect the same thing will happen with education. William Calvin

If you get microbiologists drunk, or at least a few beers into them, it’s not rare for them to say they’ll have aging solved in 20 years. Robert Carlson

I think by any rational standards you’d have to say that the proposition we call China is a mass of almost insoluble contradictions. I could be wrong, but 1.3 billion people trying to have a lifestyle like Orange County? Can you imagine just the environmental consequences of that? Orville Schell

I think this may be a theme for the decade—that we’re going to take packages of things and unbundled them and reassemble the parts. It happens with cultures and biological organisms. It also happens with governments. Danny Hillis

So much depends...

An Introduction
to the hard Semantic Web...
...in simple Haiku

A precious present,
Poetic semantic web
Everything flows.

from Stephen Downes

Heinz Von Foerster

Heinz Von Foerster, one of the pioneers and co-founders of the field of cybernetics, died yesterday in his home on Rattlesnake Hill in Pescadero, CA. Converge magazine recently printed an interview with this wonderful man. Excerpts:

Also see Ted Kahn's commemorative page at Design Worlds.