October 2009: Media Shift Tipping Point?

Music has become one of the important indicators of cultural shift – In the last week I’ve come across several events which, whilst interesting separately, coincidentally suggests a fundamental shift is underway in media.

October 13^th Rihanna first tweet announces album release date

October 25^th 2009 U2 stream a live concert on Youtube

October 30^th Britney Spears announces new video via twitter

October 30^th The Foo Fighters stream a live performance on Facebook with chat and twitter

Much music activity is still of the traditional create and consume push model albeit mediated in various ways these days. The Foo fighters stream was particularly interesting as it presented an “intimate” and interactive studio based setting to millions of people who could interact via facebook and twitter with each other and to a limited extend with the band as well.

The next step as I see it is a more dynamic “mash” of media – performing out to a live audience and the Net with increasing opportunities to pull in from the audience and the Net.

I’m imagining how artists could use Augmented reality to overlay new dimensions to their performances – While performing in the studio The Foos could overlay a concert venue or other action scenes – indeed they could augment a performance anywhere. I’m imagining how artists could augment other performers and performances in their shows for example when doing a cover track.

With audience smart camera phones I’m imagining how you could view a performance from various points of view.

I’m wondering whether, like in original Shakespeare plays, members of the audience could say “I can do that part better”, get up on the “stage” and play the part. Consider Youtube performances and their video responses for example Steve Vai Tender Surrender and some of the amazing responses.

Welcome To The 21st Century: The Beginning

The noughties are a new decade, century and millennium – the changes happening with technology and their impact on identity, culture and society really are this momentous.

One way to see these changes is with a straight historical contrast and you can see my rough work on twitter here.

The 20^th century can be seen as the peek of traditional ways of doing things that really do stretch back to the dawn of humanity – familiar things extrapolated to the extreme with mechanisation and automation and with extreme consequences to the environment we have now come to understand. I covered much of this in 20th Century Industrial Processes: Culture, Identity and Information

I characterise the past era as one of “concrete” thinking” – thinking and activity that is rooted in and characterised by a predominance of physical objects and events. Thinking that books are literature, newspapers are journalism and CDs are music. Thinking that schools and colleges are education. Thinking that the office is the workplace.

“Concrete” thinking goes deeper though – I also describe the past era as the era of “pyramids” – the design and construction of hierarchical, elitist and stable structures – the standard organisational model often manifest and symbolised by top floor executive offices.

I characterise the 20^th century as an era of super large scale manufactured production and personal consumption – the extreme end of the application of tools from the stone axe to the modern production line.

I characterise the 20^th century as an era of mediation, privacy, secrecy and obfuscation – a consequence of the elitist pyramid model to maintain stability and equilibrium and a Marxian interpretation of culture.

Technology developments are for the first time I think providing the opportunity to transcend traditional “concrete” ways of thinking and acting – my main focus is on Information technology but radical developments are taking place in all the sciences, leading new applications of technology and “unthinkable” effects and opportunities for humanity, culture identity and society.

I characterise the 21^st century as an era of “networks”, indeed the internet symbolises and facilitates “network thinking”. It’s an era of flat, integrated, dynamic, and emergent structures. The 21^st century is already and will be increasingly fast, complex, chaotic, uncertain and “organic”.

The 21^st century will be increasingly open, public and participatory – it will be an era of personal production where large organisations may consume the output of individuals but there will be increasing disintermediation and scope with individuals transacting directly.

In a nutshell I see the 21^st century as an era of software.

This blog is intended as the basis of a series exploring associated ideas, technology, cultural, educational themes etc.

Please add your comments.

20th Century Industrial Processes: Culture, Identity and Information

This blog takes a brief look at how industrial processes have shaped our culture, identity and our ideas of information.

The defining factor of the 20^th century was fossil fuel (especially oil) which today provides an energy equivalent to 22 billion slaves and allowed an exponential extension of 19^th century industrialism to do things faster, bigger and more. The 20^th century as an industrial age was dominated by material things, materialism and industrial processes – manufacture, distribution, consumption, disposal and the identity, political and power structure consequences of this.

Fossil fuel became abundant and cheap and 20^th century systems could afford to be energy intensive – the globalisation of material things became possible – the earth became a global factory. China for example could manufacture from raw materials transported from multiple countries using oil transported from multiple countries and then transport manufactured goods to multiple countries. Transportation is present at every stage – the energy and pollution costs are now apparent.

Politics and economics became focused on production and people’s identities became focused on consumption – we have become defined by what we have – the things we buy rather than the things we do or make. The consequences of political and economic power can be read from this.

Information is intangible and must be represented in some way and given that the Internet didn’t exist through most of the 20^th century then information was by necessity locked up in material forms of representation and the necessary 20^th century industrial systems associated with material things – energy intensive manufacture, distribution, consumption and disposal along with the political and power structure issues that result.

The 21^st century Internet provides a new perspective on 20^th century information – the energy intensive manufacturing and transportation costs involved and the advantages pertaining to those who own the means of production and distribution. Consider what is required to produce a magazine – from the felling and processing of trees to make paper to the printing and distribution and the eventual disposal and waste.

Information was constrained and limited by its physical embodiment in objects – it was expensive, scarce, difficult to change and to share. You may need to travel to a bookshop or library to get a book – there would only be a limited number of books, you couldn’t easily make and distribute your own book or comments on a book. The same issues apply to other forms of information such as audio and visual information – consider the industrial processes involved in the music business to manufacture and distribute CDs.

Embodying information in physical objects slows it down and freezes it – in the same way that paper is a dead tree you could regard a book as dead information – there is no interaction. It seems a bit extreme but you could regard a library like an information graveyard where you can go to read inscriptions on the tombstones – the books as tombstones – dead information.

Computers and software as information technology have themselves also been part of the 20^th century industrial production-consumption dynamic. Mainframes were born in the middle of the 20^th century and naturally created a centralised information and control model. Punk music and the personal computing trend both started in the late1970s as an attempt at personal production – both were eventually assimilated by the very mainstream industry processes they were a rebellious response to. Personal computing is dominated by major industry businesses. Software “production” is still dominated by manufacture, distribution and installation – it is partially “dead” software. Computers and anything digital are subject to rapid produce and consume cycles – we need ever faster machines to run ever bigger software. The irony is that the machines of the information age had become the epitome of the industrial age.

Video confession 12

Opportunity, organisational culture  and innovation

IT is renowned for pace of change and as life is increasingly mediated by IT we find that the pace change in our lives is increasing.

There are two coping mechanisms for dealing with change.

Be defensive, inward looking, backward looking and entrenched in what you are and have been doing. Use organisational systems to delay and stifle change. Build barriers and obstacles to fortify your position. Bury your head in the sand and dig a hole.

Be open, outward looking, forward looking and find new ways of doing things and find new things to be doing. Use organisational systems to encourage and embrace change.  Reduce barriers and include others. Go out and find opportunities.

IT systems technician Raz has recently started an evening table tennis club in the student common room. What grabbed my attention was that if an opportunity is provided then people will collaborate and participate. Raz’s table tennis club has people from all areas of the college – students, admin staff and lecturers from different divisions. Raz gives training but at the same time is not afraid to be beaten the students – it’s a good example of teacher as facilitator and of participation and communication working across boundaries.

Raz’s table tennis club made me realise the significance of opportunity in innovation and organisational culture and the importance social networking across boundaries will play in the future.

In the video we see two IT systems tehnicians Raz and Abdul playing at the end of the sessi0n. It’s interesting to note that the students have so far always beaten the staff.

   

Education: PIE and MASH-Beyond Space and Time

Consumerisation and personalisation are the underlying trends in recent education thinking, technology developments and our culture generally.

This blog attempts to combine recent educational proposals with recent IT developments, describe some of the challenges and make some suggestions for meeting these challenges.  

Recent educational papers  promote ACTIVE LEARNING through consumerisation and personalisation. They promote demand led learning, competitive learning markets, learner accounts, greater learner choice and soft skills such as research, problem solving, collaboration, communication and information management. We will also be expected to deliver learning across boundaries – in the workplace, in other institutions and at home.  The educational papers suggest the mindset required.

Recent IT developments promote ACTIVE IT through consumerisation and personalisation developments in mobile technology and use (smartphones, UMPCs, WADs, mobile broadband) and through continued development in the capabilities of on-line social networking and Web 2 applications and spaces. The IT developments suggest the tools required.

My opinion is that developing NET technologies such as PIE (Personal Information Environments) and MASH (the ability to combine different information sources) will provide some of the tools to operate and learn beyond the traditional boundaries of Space (locations) and Time and allow us to deliver the Active and Personalised learning the educational papers promote. The crucial thing is that these tools are useless without the mindset to operate them and that the tools and mindset have to apply to institutions and not just to learners.

The Challenge

Recent educational thinking promotes active learning and soft skills such as research, problem solving, collaboration, communication and information management yet our systems (exams, quality, IT and buildings) offer an environment developed from 20^th century learning approaches and don’t offer a natural environment to develop active learning.

Everyday life will be increasingly mediated by the net (information, leisure, work, learning, shopping, socialising, etc) and being “on net” is increasingly vital. This will be the context in which we will be expected to operate in the near future. We should expect to see more people seeking web access and carrying around Web Access Devices (smartphones, UMPC, laptops etc). We should expect to see more people using personal web spaces – interacting through social networks, using web 2 applications or using customised Personal Information Environments (PIE) created by MASHING applications, feeds and links.

In education there is a tension and a challenge. Young people, teachers and institutions are operating at different speeds within different contexts – young people (major educational consumers) are relatively comfortable with “NET LIFE”. Teachers have some experience of “NET LIFE” but generally don’t have the time or support to explore and develop it and its use in education. Institutions change even slower – they have few incentives to engage in the risk that change brings – to do so risks upsetting hard worked quality development.  Thus we have a problem – educational thinking, technology, culture and our students are all moving on at a faster pace yet how are institutions expected to deliver in the real world the reforms described in educational papers.

The challenge is to be able to provide active learning opportunities in increasingly flexible ways – for learner “consumers” to access learning where, when and how they wish. Rammel (2006) for example illustrates one aspect of our challenge –  “The development of Specialised Diplomas as a modular qualification with young people taking different modules or qualifications in different institutions will present challenges.”

Suggestions for meeting the challenge

1. Re-engineer our networks

With more people (staff and students) using personal web access devices and personal information spaces we need to build our networks to allow these to operate in our institutions.

1a Re-engineer our networks provide our bandwidth to guest devices to access the net.

I’m already seeing many iPhones for example on our system. The objective is to provide a secure internal /institutional network but with some form of guest access to the Internet. One solution on wireless is to guest SSID’s to which guest devices associate and then tunnel them out onto the Internet through web access filters without “touching” our secure networks. Ultimately however the spread of wireless WAN (3G, Wimax) will reduce the need to accommodate guest devices on our own networks.

1b Re-engineer to increase bandwidth and reliability especially for our Internet connections.

Network and Internet access is everything and Internet connectivity will increasingly be seen as the priority. This means that our networks will busier and that we should be increasing bandwidth and reliability to accommodate. Increasingly the “ network is the computer”  and investments in our networks should be prioritised.

2 Re-engineer our Systems

With more people (staff and students) using personal web access devices and personal information spaces and access needed from staff and students in workplaces and other institutions we need to build our systems to allow Internet access and to provide data interfaces for users. We should plan to make it possible for a learner to use their own personal information environment (PIE) to access our systems.

2a Re-engineer systems for Internet access as a priority.

All relevant learning systems should be designed and built Internet first.

2b Re-engineer systems to provide Internet data feeds and interfaces.

All data should have web access and we need to think about interfaces for users and enabling RSS.

3 Re-engineer our physical environment

Recent educational thinking promotes development active learning and soft skills such as research, problem solving, collaboration, communication and information management. The traditional classroom is not a natural environment for this type of activity – we need to develop new learning spaces that are more natural to active styles of learning.

We need to create and support experimental learning spaces in which to develop new teaching ideas. One key ingredient is that learners can change the environment to accommodate new learning – groups work / project work / net access. The other key ingredient is that there is adequate support on hand – technical and educational.

4 Re-engineer our curriculum

Current curricula remind me of trying to fit round pegs (learners) into square holes (colleges) and the problems this causes when increasingly we want round pegs. Current curricula and operation are derived from the 20^th century industrial age – they have fixed time and space slots (lessons) – they have industrial style advantages in terms of quality control and management but present real problems for the active, flexible learning educational reforms being promoted. Curricula change is probably going to be the most difficult problem.  How can we manage and deliver a curriculum where the resources, time and space for various activities change from week to week and where students might pick and choose what to learn.

Re-engineer curricula to be modular

This seems to be necessary to be flexible. For example it would be advantageous to be able to study business modules along with science and arts for example.

Re-engineer more of the curricula to be on-line

This seems to be necessary to be flexible. Timetable clashes might prevent certain combinations but if studied on-line then the restrictions of space and time disappear – we can study wherever and whenever we want and how much or how little we want.

Re-engineer ourselves

Leitch (2006) views the natural resource of the 21^st to be our people and that education is key to developing this resource. Institutions are made of people and ultimately none of the education reforms can happen unless our people (teachers, support, admin, managers and executives) engage with the new paradigm – we need to develop both the mindset and the tools. The mindset is Active, Flexible, Collaborative and Experimental. The tools are those of the NET, including web 2 and social networking.  We need to begin using and experimenting with RSS, Tags, blogs, and groups  for example to enable us to work across traditional boundaries and the boundaries of space and time.

Web 2 – Beyond Space and Time

Traditional organisational structure has been historically determined by constraints of space and time. Space and time has determined who you are able to interact with. A striking symbol of traditional organisational life is the meeting – the traditional organisational decision making method– a system defined by space and time.

Culture can be defined as the circulation of meanings within a community – people in a community share the same experiences and the meanings that are derived. When we talk about company culture we are often referring to the values shared by the people in the company space at certain times.  Business “gurus” are aware of the importance of company culture and the importance of “getting together” and “doing things together” – whether this is around the coffee machine, in company events or even on team building exercises.

The organisation provides a structure for organisational culture – space, time and systems for access and interaction. The traditional organisation provides for its people – individuals slot into the company structure and carry out defined roles. The first stages of IT usually automate the manual system and this is the case with most company IT systems – they implement the organisational structure that has been derived through time and space – the company provides systems which define how its people interact and operate.

Companies are embedded within society – their employees, customers and products are part of society. Companies are also exposed to the same forces as society – globalisation, developments on the Internet, the pressure to produce faster and cheaper etc. The traditional method of decision making in companies is under pressure to cope – it can be difficult and costly to bring people together in time and space for meetings with the speed and flexibility required by a faster changing world. IT is mostly responsible for these pressures and hopefully IT can provide a method of meeting them – the problem and the solution come from the same set of tools.

Web 2 and Internet social networking systems provide the tools for new ways of interacting and they are changing the cultural and business environment we live in – I can’t help thinking of the Ostrich or dinosaur analogies here – we can ignore the environment, carry on as we are, become irrelevant and become extinct.  The alternative is to be sensitive to changes in the environment, adapt accordingly, exploit those changes, remain relevant and successful or at least survive.

It has taken many years but companies now routinely use the Internet and “web 1” as an internal and external communications medium (email, web sites, on-line purchasing etc) – the Internet is integral and embedded.

Awareness and use of Web 2 and social networking is more difficult than for “web 1”. Web 1 implemented current organisational structure so that people and organisations could understand and use it. Although there are specific toolsets for Web 2 many people and organisations feel uncomfortable about their use – this is because their use is based upon a different paradigm (paradigm 2) . Paradigm change is fundamental and as a result can be quite uncomfortable – it depends on your mindset. However, with increasing numbers of people (employees and customers and of course business and markets) using web 2 and social networks companies and other organisations must start to consider these technologies or risk becoming irrelevant.

Web 2 and social networking allows us to go beyond the traditional constraints of space and time – we can interact with people globally at different times – we no longer need to collect bodies in the same room at the same time or worse still collect bodies in multiple spaces at the same time (video conferencing).

Without the constraints of space and time boundaries can be made softer. Web 2 and social networking are useful in crossing boundaries – customers can interact with employees, employees with other employees and employees with those in other organisations. For example, some companies are now using web 2 and social networks to replace traditional focus groups – real customers providing feedback to real employees about products in an interactive way.

Organisations should be starting to explore and experiment with the use of web 2 and social networking – this could be like pushing against an open door as increasing numbers of customers and employees are already using these systems and are familiar with the way they work. Organisations should consider running fewer meetings and explore setting up social network groups to create inclusive decision groups that cross boundaries.

IT departments should be leading on the application of web 2 and social networks – more than most departments IT is familiar with constant change and development – they should be able to explore and exploit the use of these new technologies.

Personal Computing?

Personal networks, power sources and computing

There is a tendency for equipment to become smaller and more mobile – to such an extent that in the near future the phrases “Personal Computing” and “embedded IT” could have entirely different meanings.

Research from different areas is coming together to suggest what person computing might be like in a few decades or possibly sooner with personal power sources, networks and computing.

One of the problems with mobile computing is power but research in bio-engineering suggests many intriguing ways to use the body as a power source and recent advances in reducing the power requirements of electronic devices could make it possible to run or charge the batteries of some of your gadgets from your own body. There are many ways to do this – Using, body heat, Kinetic energy and from Blood glucose among other methods.

Another problem is with communications and wires – especially as devices get smaller – why not use the electrical properties of your body to transmit information – IBM have been researching this since 1996 but  Microsoft have a patent.   Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is working on a Prototype mobile phone that can transmit information through the human body so that you can could in the future exchange information with other people and devices at the touch of your finger (or other parts of your body).

The last problem is with the portability and the size of our mobile devices. One answer is to build them into items we would normally use – like clothes  for example. If you want to check out someone a bit extreme see the work of Steve Mann.

Looking at the way digital natives treat their mobile phones as an extension of self then it seems like the future human will be some form of human-mobile hybrid – where do I insert the SIM?

Loneliness of the long distance educationalist

Don’t forget the Journey  (It’s a Zen Thing)

One of the activities I like is running and over the last few years I have been trying to get my times down on 2, 8 and 13 mile circuits. This involves hard effort, recording split times post run analysis and a focus on identifying the problems and areas that slow me down.

Recently I wanted a good run, didn’t have the time for a long run but didn’t feel like the pain of a 2 mile run against the clock so decided on a new route with steep hills. What a refreshing experience this was – to run a new circuit with no previous time to compare against although I did recorded the time for the next run on this circuit.

Today I set of for a run again but of a different kind – I didn’t set the clock and I decided only roughly where I would go – that I would “explore” a little and adjust the run as it progressed. What a pleasure this was and it reminded me why I started running in the first place – to get out in the open, to get some exercise and to see some of the area around where I live. This made me realise that the reason I started running had been lost and had been overtaken by the activity of measurement and analysis. Now I am looking forward to exploring a new route in next week’s run.

Measurement and performance analysis has its place in certain activities – these usually involve competition, definition and repetition. We should be careful however that the act of measuring an activity doesn’t become more important than the activity itself and that measurement is a valid and appropriate thing to do for an activity.

Whilst out running I couldn’t help thinking about performance measurement (tests) and the effect these have had on education.  In the controversy over the better grades achieved today I believe this is down to teaching and learning rather than easier tests – this can’t be surprising given today’s focus on measurement and testing and the hard work that goes into getting these results. However, we can ask just what it is that is being taught and learned – are we teaching a subject or are we teaching how to pass a test in that subject? What is education?

Children  have a natural “thirst” for learning, experimentation and play but in so many this disappears and as they pass through the school system and like my running against the clock the purpose of education can be lost and spoilt by testing and measurement to such an extent that for many young people learning in school painful and alienating. The education system itself is possibly one of the causal factors in the problems we have with young people today.

However, there are signs of change.

In the developing fast moving, information rich, “global” societies of the 21^st century there is a need for people to develop better information management skills to research, evaluate, decide and communicate.  These general information management skills are a large part of what education (teaching and learning) is about and educational thinking asks us to look at ways to develop them in our students.

While we have to coach our students to do as well in educational tests as they can we can also try to develop and improve the educational experience itself (the journey) with the inclusion of information management and new teaching techniques.  Education can be and should be enjoyable.

Now where are those trainers – I feel like another run.

Virtualisation – 1

Virtualisation – to be able to represent the real world by some abstract means is necessary to be conscious and provides the tools to develop intelligence. Symbols (language, maths  etc)  allow us to share virtualisations and interact via them.

Virtualisation is nothing new but it is the degree to which it is carried out that provides the advantage. Spoken language – written language – telephony – the internet – these have been the major developments in virtualisation through history.

In this early part of the 21^st century citizens of the developed nations live with virtualisation unimaginable 150 years ago – mobile phones, TV, radio and of course the Internet. Virtualisations have had major impacts on society – consider the printing press or how TV has affected how we spend our time.

It is anticipated that virtualisations mediated by the Internet will have a major impact on society- consider the current developments involving remote working and learning, the rapid rise of social networking, web 2 and virtual worlds. Consider the amount of time people now spend with electronic virtualisation each day – TV, radio, electronic games, telephones, email, social networks, web sites.  It is expected that the amount of time we spend in virtual worlds will increase – however, there are only so many hours in the day.

How will we cope?

What will be the effects on the real world and real society?

What about equal opportunities?

How will these virtual words develop?

Power tools for paradigm 2

Power tools for paradigm 2

Back in the 1970’s there were predictions that scientific and technical developments would lead to an age of leisure in the 21^st century – with machines to do our work for us we would be working half as much. Like the paperless office this has failed to materialise, instead we seem to be working harder and longer. What has happened is that our machines allow us to do more in the same period of time – we still work the same long hours.

The problem with working in paradigm 2 is coping with the jump in the amount of information generated as more and more people  participate and produce. We have power tools like electric drills and saws to assist us with mechanical needs –  we need power tools to help us with our information needs.

Here are a few of the “power tools” required for paradigm 2

Email – automatic processes, rules and filtering

With overwhelming volumes of email you will need to apply some methods of automatically dealing with it. Possible developments with email systems are being able to automatically flag message priorities according to message criteria (sender, subject, key words etc). For now being able to accurately put items automatically into a junk mail filter is very useful.

Search

With so much information “out there” and “in here” on your own systems you need to have some methods of being able to find what you need. Google are at the heart of Web 2 development and it is Google of course who took search to a new level. Although I organise my emails and file storage in folders I have found the new desktop search systems very useful indeed. Having search technology available and being proficient in its use will be vital.

RSS – Feeds

It will become impossible to visit and keep up to date with all the pages you will need  - creating your own summary pages that take updates from the web pages you are interested will become vital.

The Future

One development I see as essential in the near future to help us cope are automated proxies. These will be systems programmed by us to process, decide and respond automatically on our behalf and present us with a summary of actions taken so that programming can be adjusted. Such systems  would present us with a virtualised view and it is quite possible that these tools would lead to what we could regard as paradigm 3.