Currently focused on the technology important to the self-determined learner, completing my red seal as a carpenter, learning all I can about using AI in the residential building trades, and in building year-round greenhouses for Newfoundland and Labrador.
15 months back I described the design / creation of a progressive video assessment system. The AIM Language Professional (ALP) web site has now gone live and therefore so has the technology platform which implements progressive video assessment. We have also recently submitted this project to be considered for the CNIE-RCIE Award of Excellence and Innovation in Instructional Design, wish us all the best.
The Platform
The platform for building and hosting this product is Drupal 6.x using Kaltura for hosting and streaming the video. After a fairly rigorous selection process the project chose Drupal for a number of reasons;
its content management features
its community and discussion features
its mature developer community and related support
the ability to find a very good contract development company
its ease to integrate with video hosting and streaming providers
The Pedagogy
The AIM language professional site was designed to use existing (yet emerging) pedagogical approaches by following both progressive inquiry and connectivism. These two approaches are very well suited to encouraging a learner by their progressing through learning modules while being supported by the network of peers present within the site.
The progressive inquiry model is designed to facilitate engagement in an in-depth process of inquiry and expert-like working with knowledge that are essential for productive participation. The model moves between different activities of discovering and presenting new knowledge, critical reflection, deepening research and activities, and engaging a distributed network of expertise.
The connectivism model is grounded in forming connections where learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources. Aim Language Professional allows a person to create and connect to many different nodes of either their or others’ making. These nodes include; writing, reflection, video, discussion, quizzes, exams, gesture database, notes, messages and posts.
The use of these two pedagogical approaches occur in the following areas within the site;
Learning organizer – this aspect of the ALP allows the learner to organize all their work into a single online portal that they can easily manage. The innovation occurs in how comprehensive and accessible the knowledge gathering toolset facilitates learning, reflection and mentor/peer based learning.
Mentorship and peer review – the use of learner uploaded video with peer mentorship makes innovative use of video-upload services and the discussion that can occur around the video for assessment purposes.
Remote observation of classroom – the video also allows for remote (asynchronous) observation of the classroom for rapid assessment feedback to the learner.
There is no avoiding software testing, and no matter at what stage of the software development life-cycle you are, testing will happen. Over the last 25 years I have shipped a lot of software, this ranges from COBOL through to PhP and many programming languages in between. I have worked on medical, insurance, financial, DRM, websites, Mainframes, Minis, UNIX, Mac, PC... whatever, the list goes on. During this time I have learned teams ship and test software differently. I wouldn't say their is one right way to do it, it just needs to be done! The extreme of this could be Google, they ship their software as beta. Essentially, they have their customers test their software, or at least let them know it is still a work in progress. This isn't to say Google doesn't do testing before they release to beta, they do. The other end of the spectrum would be medical or the military, where a bug could be fatal. Needless to say they test their software exhaustively before they ship. The main point being is if their is a bug in the software, it will eventually show itself. The question then becomes how much effort do you put into testing before you unleash your software upon your customers / users? This is an interesting question for it also aligns with your brand and what level of quality is associated with your brand. Google can release beta software and they seem to be doing alright as a company... people are used to them as an innovator and the idea of using beta software is a part of their brand. Your company may be associated with high quality, reliability and works first time, so releasing software with bugs may not be the best approach.
The great thing is that software testing is a mature practice and their are many options available to organizations who are involved with shipping software. There are many testing frameworks, approaches and standards available. I see there are two themes with software testing; the first being the traditional that was born out of some of the big quality standards like ISO and CMMI. And the second that came from the agile approach of developing software. I have experience within both themes, and my preference is with the Agile / Automated approaches.
CMMI is subscriptive not prescriptive. In other words it is a set of guidelines where your organization needs to have or create the practices that fit the guidelines. CMMI doesn't tell you how to do it (cause that depends on organizational culture) it just says that you need to do these things if you want to achieve a certain amount of maturity in relation to your organizations software development capability.
In my mind, Agile testing means automated testing. The idea being that testing is as automated as it can be and is built into the software development life cycle. In some situations an automated test suite is built before coding of the software has begun. Another would be while the software is being built a dedicated Quality Assurance (QA) team builds automated tests and works in concert with the developers to test as features are being buit, this is my preferred approach. All this is known as test driven development. The cool part of this is a projects can have thousands of automated tests and if a software build makes it through all the tests it will automatically be migrated to quality assurance for the next round of testing to begin. If the test suite fails everyone knows immediately and can address the issue based upon the knowledge of what code changes were most recently done. It can be very motivating to developers to have such a mature development environment.
No matter where your organization sits with all this, thorough testing needs to be done. And having testers who can as closely model end-users would be preferred. If your not that thorough during your software development process your users will quickly let you know where the flaws can be found. Hopefully, your organizational brand will not be negatively impacted by these user discovered flaws.
Wow!!! I am one proud parent! My Daughter (Ana Rose) was interviewed on CJSF 90.1 FM. She had (with other rock campers) the opportunity to discuss Girls Rock Camp Vancouver and to play some of her own and Kerplunks music. If you want to listen to the radio show in its entirety point your mp3 player at either of these two links, or download the mp3s and load them to your iPod.
"A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change", Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown.
Just finished reading the new book from Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown. It pretty much captures it for me, the whole idea of learning as play and following your bliss (or passion) while pursuing learning is exactly how I see it. If you have been following my blog over the last while and the anchoring of my self-directed "nophd" you will know I firmly believe in the value in learning through following your passion. Outside of the institution it would be a herculean task to complete a PhD without a strong internal motivation. Not to say it is easy from within the institution, just their are structures to help with getting to completion when in the institution. If you are a life-long learner and considering scholarly pursuits this book is a must read for all adult learners; and parents who are wondering best how to prepare their children for a future of constant change.
I have been a follower of John Seely Brown since his co-authorship of the article "minds on fire". This article galvanized my change of career when I brought together 15 years of information technology work with 8 years being college and university faculty. The reason I bought the book was I caught wind of the difference between a collective and a community and how a person learns within the collective. And how a person within a collective is different than a person within a community. Essentially, the person serves the community and the goals of the community where a collective has many participants and the people are served by the collective. This is an important difference to the motivations behind engagement. From the life-long learner perspective, finding a collective where your interests are strongly aligned is a blessing and a great support for your learning.
The book also touches upon inquiry and the fun that can be had when asking questions and gaining new knowledge. And how inquiry really focuses on the gaining of knowledge rather than the outcome. You know, its the journey not the destination kind of thinking. This inquiry part resonates for me as I often refer back to the Progressive Inquiry Model when I am thinking and writing about online and learning 2.0. I still see Progressive Inquiry as the first writings about pushing beyond constructivism and provides a model for the activities that go on within connectivist learning. It is the connections that are created within the "progressive" inquiry where the knowledge is gained, developed and grown.
Thomas and Seely-Brown make use of the word indwelling, which originated from Michael Polanyi. I found the use of the word indwelling as new for me. Though I have thought about it often, particularly as I have been thinking about my "nophd" and how it could take a great deal of time to gain the expertise to have a PhD depth of knowing. And this mastery of a subject occurs through a prolonged study of a subject. For me I recognize this and aspire to master folk music and dance over the next period of time, whether it be 10 or 30 years. As adult learners I believe this is the playfulness and ease which is found as one attains indwelling that will assist in success. All good!
Where I found the book could have elaborated more is in how this thinking could be applied in institutional environments. Over the last few years I have been very critical of institutionalized learning and recently I have been thinking more about all this great work with the new approaches to learning and rarely do I read about how they could alter and enhance institutionalized learning. I thought the book was going to get into it for it touched upon the number of hours students spend on campus and how much "free" time they have outside the classroom. I see this time as being open to be occupied by this kind of learning, the free flow of exploring ideas and following those subjects which excite the learner, even if they are on campus.
I loved the story this book told. It did a great job of setting the stage and followed up with a succinct and powerful description of how people are and will be learning in the 21st century. A great read for all the life-long learners who want to add approaches and understanding to their learning.
A month ago I decided to move my website hosting all over to rackspace and this has been progressing very well. Changing hosting providers is not a small task as I have my own domains and those of a couple of clients also hosted with netnation. The hosting provider move will require the following steps;
Contact clients, tell them of the move
Assist clients with their move as we agree
Review my services and develop migration strategy
Consolidate my blogs
Create rackspace instance
Move bit.bc.ca with focus on creating and testing email services
Move endeavours.com with focus on email services, mysql, php, REST APIs, and Drupal
Move rawsthorne.org with focus on website and email services
The move of docudance went very well, and in the process a new developer released a completely reworked version of the site. It looks great!
I have also moved my first blog (2004 - 2007) from blog.rawsthorne.org to have all the post a part of this criticaltechnology blog. There was not an export service from my original blog so this took some effort. It was time well spent as I got to review my past writings. Quite interesting to again read my thinking from six to eight years ago. The main themes and standout posts are;
The importance of software quality on technology start-up success
The formation of my ideas around ICT4D and how it should be driven from the village out
With such large numbers of knowledgeable and skilled people retiring, wouldn’t it make sense to have them blog (or contribute to a wiki) every day as a part of their job description. They would create postings about the work they do and the wisdom they have before they leave the building for their retirement. Once in a blog or wiki all this knowledge could then be indexed by the internal indexing / search engine and it wouldn’t be lost.
Oh the wonders of Morris Dancing. I came to a deeper understanding of one of our dances over the last week. The dance is known as Lorenz's Butterfly. I actually find it one of our most beautiful dances, this is due to its dynamic flow and simplicity. It is also the only dance I know how to call. Here is a version danced by Bogart's Breakfast;
What gave me a deeper understanding was initiated by my watching this outstanding BBC production titled; Complexity - Secret Life of Chaos, and the reading of some amazing scientific minds;
Alan Turing and his interest in Mathematical Biology.
And a couple of other amazing minds mentioned in the BBC episode.
So what really got me thinking about how all this fits together is how the dance has four dancers ganging up on one dancer, dressed as the devil. I see the four dancers being Alan Turing, Edward Lorenz, Boris Belousov and Robert May all beating up on Sir Issac Newton signifying the death of the Newtonian scientific view. And therefore giving birth to a new science that includes Chaos Theory... The dance has the following moves which signify the following themes;
Opening - ganging up on Newton.
Chorus - exchange of ideas.
Round the gardener - scientific inquiry within a focused area of study.
Chorus - further exchange of ideas.
Flutter - the birth of a new theory.
Chorus - further exchange of ideas.
Lines - the communication of a new theory.
Chorus - further exchange of ideas.
Exit - the setting free of the new theory.
So there you have it. A Morris dance interpreted as scientific discovery or is that scientific discovery interpreted as a Morris dance, or is that a small jig that sets off the wonders of a whole chaotic Ale... Oh the magic of it all.
This is what the Networked and Open PhD (NOPhD) is all about. It is about working with others in an open and collaborative way so everyone deepens their knowledge on a shared subject domain. The great part would be if everyone who is in the collaborative cohort aspired to develop a PhD level of knowing within the subject they share a passion. Due to the networked (and collaborative) aspect of the NOPhD I believe a number of people in the cohort need to make it to the PhD depth of knowing, otherwise it couldn't be considered networked. So I have faith and begin to encourage (and hopefully inspire) the people around me (virtually and otherwise) who are interested in this pursuit of developing a deeper knowing of Folk Music and Dance. And those interested in pedagogy, technology and life-long learning; for I will be drawing on these skills and knowledge as I build upon this anchor subject.
So what exactly does this look like? Well why don't I describe my week and how certain events fit into the networked and collaborative;
On February 24th I committed to Folk Music and Dance as the anchor subject for my "nophd". This decision was assisted by my network.
I did some searches on the history of Morris dance and the instruments used, I knew of and was looking for a whistle type instrument played in one hand. I discovered the pipe and tabor was what I had been looking for. I found few sites and ordered some pipes and some books. During these transactions I made contacts, exchanged emails and have added a couple more people to my network directly involved with my chosen subject area. They offered assistance if I request.
I also found a couple of groups online, including one in facebook. So I asked a couple of questions and already have replies. It was even suggested that I start with learning Good King Wenceslas. So once I get the scales down and am feeling comfortable with the fingering I will start with this song. I need to trust the suggestions of my network.
I also had an email exchange with the whistle blower in our Morris side and he is jazzed about having a pipe and tabor in the group and is also interested in learning the instrument.
After discussion it would seem I can adjust flute scores to the pipe.
So there you have it. Five days after committing to Folk Music and Dance as the anchor subject for my Networked and Open PhD I already have begun engaging three people in my new online learning community and have made face to face contact with another who is interested in my journey. Ahhh... self directed and collaborative learning at its best.
So I've committed to using "nophd" as my hashtag rather than "onphd". Why? for a number of reasons;
NoPhD has a better likelihood of becoming a meme than OnPhD.
What I am doing is thumbing my nose at the PhD. Because I believe it is no longer relevant for the adult life-long learner. Particularly, given I have no intention of becoming an academic.
In this endeavour I believe the Networked part is much more important that the Open part. So the N should come before the O.
I like the humorous side of calling it a NoPhD, even though it means Networked and Open.
I'm doing this because I want to serve as an example (maybe even an inspiration). I want to show how a person using many corners of the available technology and pedagogical approaches can deepen their knowing in a chosen subject area. I want to become a case study in developing a PhD level of understanding in the open while drawing on my network and collaborating with others with similar interests. I also want to help others do the same. I don't want No stinkin' PhD!
I also have a recently burned CD of our Morris sides popular music and I will be loading this into my Ableton live based studio. Here I will begin to record my musical learning, I will record my first attempt at playing the pipe so we have a baseline to my progress.
My poll results are pointing me toward developing a mastery of folk music and dance while also deepening my knowledge around pedagogy, technology and life long learning. And these results are fine with me, as I believe having an anchor subject or activity is a pedagogically solid approach to give my research and activities a subject of interest (an anchor). Therefore, I will be applying what I know in regards to pedagogy, technology and life long learning as I develop a mastery of folk music and dance. I believe it is going to be a fun journey to develop Open Educational Resources within this realm.
I really like where all this went. I was forced to think about completion and what it would take. The personal conclusion I drew was that exploring pedagogy, technology and life-long learning could not sustain me as a subject. Its what I do for a living, and I do it fairly well already with a proven track record and mastery. For me it really comes down to passion toward the subject of study, particularly if you are going to be self directed. I believe this will be true for most people endeavouring toward an Open PhD outside of the motivations inherent with doing a traditional PhD within a traditional institution.
I really appreciate the people who responded to my poll and put the energy into thinking about the question I was asking.
When doing an Open PhD or pursuing some form of life-long learning or academic study people will often speak of getting the degree, diploma or some certificate. I can see the value in having these from a recognized institution, but, in the end I consider it credentialism and no competition for good reputation management. If you are in pursuit of recognition for your life-long learning or academic study I suggest the better route would be a good reputation management strategy, rather than incur the cost and time of pursuing a credential from a recognized institution. In the age of the social graph, reputation is more important than credentials and will increasingly be used in securing jobs and showing an expertise in a subject area. I believe University credentials will decrease in value over the next 15 years and beyond.
Build an understanding;
Create a good understanding of online reputation management, the two queries that yield good reference toward this are;
After reading a post or article and you have a comment, make it, and in the author profile link back to your home-base.
As soon a you become aware of a new social media site be sure to secure your name on the site, have your profile refer back to your home-base.
Write, produce, create resources that have some weight and add to the discussion within your chosen subject area. Be thorough, frequent, reference others and create quality!
Set up Google Alerts on your name and other keywords in your chosen subject; monitor these.
Review your traffic statistics, get a sense of why people are coming to your resources, and which keywords they are getting them to you.
The goal;
The goal of all this is to have the people you consider experts within your chosen area of study begin to follow you and make comment on your works. These people become your Personal Learning Network!
If you use blogger adding a poll to your blog is easy. And the way it is implemented allows polls to be associated with the whole blog or just a single post. The same poll can be used in multiple posts while the poll results stay the same.
This can be done by adding the poll gadget to your blog from the blog design mode. While creating the poll take note of the title as you will use this to find the poll in your blogs source code.
Once you have added the poll to your blog you will need to view the source code and find the iframe that contains the poll. The code for the poll will look something like what is displayed below, what you are after is within the iframe tags. The important part is the display number as this identifies your particular poll, in this example it is "1642576544783516899". So you can display the poll in any post as long as you use the same iframe syntax and the id number refers back to the poll as stored in blogger.
<h2 class='title'>The fat cat sat on the </h2>
<div class='widget-content' id='widget-content'>
<iframe allowtransparency='true' frameborder='0' height='180' name='poll-widget1642576544783516899' src='http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/1642576544783516899/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23634320&lnkclr=%23e2a059&chrtclr=%23e2a059&font=normal+normal+100%25+Helvetica%2CArial%2CVerdana%2C%27Trebuchet+MS%27%2C+Sans-serif&hideq=true&purl=http%3A%2F%2Fcriticaltechnology.blogspot.com%2F' style='border:none; width:100%;'></iframe>
If you no longer want the poll displayed as a gadget on you blog page (but still within the post) you can delete it from within blogs design mode and the poll will still remain in the blog post. This is due to the id number.
If you were to follow someone online who is going to invest in documenting the process of developing a new area of knowing for themselves would you rather watch them in the area of;
Pedagogy, technology and life long learning
Develop a mastery of folk music and dance (while learning a musical instrument)
Building traditional in-shore wooden boats
Keep in mind that the process will be extensively documented with the goal of creating Open Educational Resources to support the knowledge building and to encourage others to join the journey, if they are so inclined.
So I continue on my path toward an Open and Networked PhD and in my last post I was musing about what am I doing and what is the point and all that navel gazing type of activity. I believe this navel gaze is an important step; for it will confirm my commitment to this journey and remove the doubt that I have chosen the correct subject area that will engage me enough to completion. Completion is very important. The first two questions from my previous post are about mastery and my chosen area of study. These two questions are;
1. A PhD is about mastery and do I want to further master something I am already a master?
I'd like to think I have a mastery of pedagogy, technology and life long learning. Now this isn't saying there isn't more I could learn in these areas, but I do have the following education and experience in these areas;
An undergrad degree (with honours) in Technology; a Bachelor of Technologies with specialty in database management.
20 years professional experience working on and building information technologies. My responsibilities in this profession are broad, best to look at my linkedin profile.
Masters of Education with specialty in Information Technology.
Eight years teaching adults at the College and University level; an additional three years teaching online and being deeply involved with the early stages of WikiEducator.
Involvement in the release of eight software initiatives during this year alone. My involvement has been architect / project manager / database administrator / even programmer over all or some of these initiatives. Each of these initiative shows a mastery of pedagogy, technology and life long learning.
2. I'd rather master something new (and therefore, fun), as I would otherwise become bored (see item 1). Should my Open and Networked PhD build on what I already know or should I develop a completely new area of knowing?
I must choose personal areas of study that will sustain me for the next 30 years. And that's not sustain me financially, but sustain me spiritually, creatively and emotionally. For me that is not doing an Open PhD on pedagogy, technology and life long learning; its doing an Open PhD in either folk music and dance or traditional wooden boat building. I am absolutely enamored by both these subjects and I would like to develop a mastery of both. This would sustain me, and I am internally motivated to master both these subject areas. This is the carrot I require to complete.
If you were to follow someone online who is going to invest in documenting the process of developing a new area of knowing for themselves would you rather watch them in the area of pedagogy, technology and life long learning or watch them develop a mastery of folk music and dance or building wooden boats? Keep in mind I will document my experience by using all I know in pedagogical approaches and technology. I will also engage experts in my chosen area whenever they make themselves available.
Would you rather follow me doing an Open PhD on
Yes, it all sounds like a lot of work, but what else am I going to do over the next 30 years?
Yesterday, I was re-reading a 14 month old post about executing on an Open PhD written by a friend of mine, Dan Pontefract. It was good to read the comments so many months later and think about what was being said. I really appreciated the comments from practicing academics, in particular Richard Smith. I have the greatest respect for Richard due to his focus on supervising people through to completion in their graduate studies. I even know of him assisting people from other institutions in their completion. People who know my work know that I spent some time studying and facilitating workshops on completion and supervision when out at Memorial University of Newfoundland. The point is that completion rates aren't as good as they should be and Richard is a champion in assisting people to completion. When Richard wrote of the carrot that was going to get you through to completion I thought deeper about my field of study and if my self created carrot would get me to completion, regardless if the study was Open or otherwise. Anyhow, It's all good. As I continue to pursue the idea of an Open and Networked PhD (ONPhD) the re-reading of Dan's post (and its comments) really got me thinking about my Open PhD. The questions it prompted are very necessary and fundamental for me at this beginning stage of the ONPhD;
A PhD is about mastery and do I want to further master something I am already a master?
I'd rather master something new (and therefore, fun), as I would otherwise become bored (see item 1). Should my Open PhD build on what I already know or should I develop a completely new area of knowing?
Currently, I am pursuing an Open PhD because I want to increase my reputation in my chosen profession, does this make sense? Is this the best (and only) way to increase my reputation?
This pursuit is also about creating a virtual research lab to deepen my understanding (I'm predominantly a kinesthetic learner) of online self direct life long learning, and sharing what I learn/do along the way. Is wrapping it in the concept of a PhD really necessary? Isn't a PhD mostly about research, being a recognized expert, becoming a university professor, getting interviewed on CBC?
Is an ON PhD, as currently being discussed, really that different than a traditional PhD? Isn't the disruption just a way to get out of paying fees and being aligned / restrained by the academy?
I have complete faith I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my pursuit. I am committed to furthering my learning / education / knowledge beyond that of a Masters level. I know much of my studies will be in the realm of pedagogy, technology and life long learning cause that is what I do for a living. But does that mean it is a good idea for me to pursue an ON PhD in pedagogy, technology and life long learning? This reflection is an important step in this pursuit - more to come on this topic... and thanks to Richard for prompting this reflection.
Over the last few weeks I have been thinking about, and discussing, a couple of tags within the folksonomy for an Open PhD. The main discussion has been with Leigh Blackall regarding the use of 'openphd' vs. 'onphd'. There are a number of themes within this discussion important to the Open PhD, in particular, the tagging approach in general. These themes influence the choice of a tag and how it is used.
the tag should become the meme (or identifier) for all those inspired by or engaged in this activity. This does not exclude the use of other tags (or words) that become a part of the folksonomy.
tagging builds the Community of Practice (CoP) folksonomy. A tag and its 'surrounding' tags become a part of the folksonomy within the community participating in the subject area containing the tag (or word). This is also a semantic web issue. Its like adding reference points to the knowledge shared within a CoP. It is important to recognize the Open PhD movement is a CoP.
tags should also resonate with how you personally organize data in your head. (your contribution to the folksonomy) It is this like mindedness (or common tags) that further connects the CoP.
tags are global, community aligning and individual all at the same time. The tag can be referenced through your profile or through the communities or global folksonomy. Your personal tags are a subset of the global. see the difference here;
All this comes back to the use of these two tags; openphd - which seems to have become the meme for the Open PhD, it's obvious why. onphd - which is meant to represent the Open and Networked PhD. This makes more sense as a tag for the Open and Networked PhD, for what we are doing will rely heavily on our social / learning network.
So what is my approach within all this?
I'm going to use both tags, openphd because it has become how I think about what I am doing and I believe it has become the meme regarding the Open PhD; networked and otherwise. I am also going to use onphd for items I come across that are reference toward the open and networked aspect.
Note: What do I mean by surrounding tags. These are the tags that become words within the folksonomy shared by the CoP.
I'm moving all my domains over to rackspace and will firmly establish them as my home base. The sites include the following;
rawsthorne.org - this is my personal site and will be used to host my personal profile and all published content and links for my Open PhD
endeavours.com - eventually this will host the site for the massively collaborative assessment system (or some other domain name, TBD)
bit.bc.ca - Bowen Institute of Technology, this will be the instance pointing at the blended learning / community of practice site where people can work toward of becoming a Solutions Architect / Learning Systems Architect.
Why the move away from netnation for my hosting? For a few reasons;
Cost. Cumulatively netnation costs me about $400 per year, I believe I will have my dedicated cloud server for about $100 per year to start.
Features. I was building some PhP/MySQL software a while back and I ran into challenges in altering the .hosts file to support a RESTful API I was building. Even after contacting netnations technical support they couldn't help me. I ended up using rackspace, their support was awesome.
Cloud based servers. I firmly believe in cloud based approaches and if I can host multiple sites with the ability to expand for close to $100 per year, why wouldn't I move.
Honestly, I really don't think netnation will mind that I move. I exhausted the discussion with the features I required. The features I required are to enable a RESTful API with a specific domain name. It requires some customizations to configuration files at the server level. Netnation were not willing to support the customizations I was requesting.
There are five main themes to the work I will be doing while completing my OpenPhd. And each of these themes need to be tagged so they can be referenced by myself and others. The five tags I will use with be;
openphd - resources for people doing an open phd or watching others do an open phd. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/openphd - this is a more personal tag for how I am referencing online materials.
nophd - resources for people doing a networked and open phd or watching others do a networked and open phd. http://www.delicious.com/prawstho/onphd - this is a community tag for the community of practice forming around a networked and open phd.
they are a follower or contributor to the open phd movement (yes, I'm calling it a movement)
they are a solutions architect, systems architect or enterprise architect or aspiring to be any of these roles and want to learn more or have another view on architectural issues.
they are a business person wanting to gain a greater understanding of technology architecture, business processes, the vocabulary and best practices within this realm.
they are a learning systems architect or educational technologist or aspiring to be either of these roles and want to learn more or have another view on architectural issues.
2011 is going to be a significant year for my consulting practice. About 10 years ago I made the conscious decision to complete a Masters of Education in Information Technology. I really wanted to bring together my software development career with my teaching career. I really wanted to shift my living to building educational technology and create educational content. I really think this year is going to be an accumulation of that decision, and that really excites me. I believe I need to cerebrate! I will celebrate each accomplishment as it is completed. And when I say completed, it has gone live on the internet and is available for consumption.
The first of these releases is a project that started late in 2009. I was asked to come in and assist with the initial design, architecture and partner selection for a peer based video assessment site for language learners. So, one year later the site goes live and I believe we have done something quite innovative when it comes to peer based mentorship and creating a community of practice platform. I believe the innovation is mostly around the use of video within the site and within the peer-mentorship practice. This is a beautiful site focused on professional development of teachers, put together for AIM language Learning and built by AppNovation Technologies. As a further endorsement of my work and now the site is going live I have been asked to do follow-up work to assess the depth of learning and value proposition being provided by the site. This is exactly the kind of work I was hoping to achieve when I brought my technology back-ground together with my love of learning.
Recently I have been thinking about how social media and hosted content relate to the organization, a companies internet presence and personal projects. This has come up for two reasons; 1. thinking about the brand and community building for a client and 2. because I have started my OpenPhD. What's important is where the content gets hosted within these realms; do you have it on a company or personal website that you are in control? Or do you put it on a shared service like facebook, wikipedia, blogger, etc... This decision is well articulated in the idea of home bases and outposts.
For organizations / companies the home base is important so you don't lose control over your content and your brand. Content stored elsewhere can be moved, more easily copied and deleted. The policies around your content are not yours, they are the policies from the shared service. Putting content on the shared service makes sense when you are wanting to attract attention and drive traffic back to your own site. Usually, the content put on the shared service is a copy of what you have stored on your own site(s). Essentially the outposts attract attention and drive traffic back to your business (or home base).
For myself attempting the significant endeavour of an OpenPhD needs to have an online presence I have control over the content, how it is referenced and the ability to add and alter the software features around my content. This was apparent when I wanted to use delicious to bookmark my readings and references but couldn't reference delicious bookmarks in my Wikiversity profile due to the platform not supporting JavaScript. So, in the end I will build up my personal website to be my home base and refer to all other locations as outposts.
Last week I was asked to answer some questions for a research project involving emerging architecture and refactoring I felt my answers would make a good post. Read below;
Yes. I have experienced cases where software architecture continuously influences the development approach within small refactoring efforts. I do NOT see architecture emerging FROM each refactoring effort, I see architecture influencing the approach at the beginning of the sprint and then development iterations provide slight alterations to the overall architecture. What emerges has been strongly influenced by the architecture specified (or agreed to) going into the sprint.
I have seen this approach creating many successful and implemented architectures. Architectural mores (or best practices) become entrenched within the team and continuously influence design at the beginning of each sprint.
2. What are the main reasons that make the emerging of software architecture from continuous small refactoring success, according to your observations/experiences?
Grounded in actual software implementation
I manage refactoring projects as improvement projects. The architecture is also improved.
Successful architecture should be measured by implemented architecture. (As opposed to documented and prescribed architecture)
Refactoring success using agile approaches includes a high level of communication. Within an experienced group this dialogue always includes architectural themes; this also improves architecture.
3. Have you seen/experienced cases where architecture failed to emerge from continuous small refactoring?
Architecture will always occur. No system can be implemented without architecture. The architecture may be optimal or it may be chaos; either should be considered architecture, for better or worse... it is still architecture. I have experienced two cases where architecture did not emerge from the continuous small refactoring. In both cases architectural groups (separate from the agile development teams) were present within the organization. Essentially the architecture groups dictated the architecture; the agile teams were restrained and worked within the prescribed architectural constraints.
4. What are the main reasons that cause such unsuccessful emerging of software architecture from continuous small refactoring, according to your observations/experiences?
See answer to previous question.
Architecture is dictated by and architectural group, the architecture must be complied to or the project with not continue.
5. Could you please describe some cases/examples of such unsuccessful emerging of software architecture from continuous small refactoring?
Banking Software: 250 person software development company focused on Core banking systems had five person architecture group with one manager. Agile groups of developers were restrained by architectural guidelines created, promoted and “enforced” by the architectural group.
Insurance Company: 5000 person insurance corporation with numerous IT and development groups had 10 person Enterprise Architectural group. Some small development teams used Agile approaches. Architecture did not emerge from refactoring efforts due to architecture groups governance (or restraints) upon architecture.
6. How many years of experience do you have in using agile methods?
Seven
7. Which agile methods (e.g., Scrum, XP) have you used?
XP
8. Which application domains (e.g., automobiles, telecommunications, finance, medical devices, web-based socio-technical systems, and etc.) you have been working in?
Core Banking, Wealth Management, Insurance, Health / Medical, Legal education, DRM / software licensing, Others...
9. What is your definition/understanding of software architecture? (You can refer to a definition you like or give your own understanding.)
Wikipedia has a reasonable definition; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_architecture
Or
The infrastructure (hardware and software), guidelines, approaches, designs, roadmaps and best practices that sheppard solutions toward business strategy.
A recent project has taken me down the path of designing a peer based assessment surrounding a learners uploaded videos of their displaying skills in action. All the technologies and approaches are now available at a reasonable cost to enable video based peer assessment or IMHO better titled as "progressive video assessment". The main ideas being leveraged are;
Learners progressing through different sets of competencies grouped into levels.
Learners are grouped into virtual cohorts, that change depending on pace, availability and competencies.
As learners complete competency sets they also provide feedback to those who have not yet completed the competencies.
A part of a learners own assessment is providing an amount of feedback to their peers, this follows more of a master-apprentice type model. The master is only one or two levels ahead of the apprentice.
Feedback is provided in private discussions triggered by an uploaded video demonstrating competencies and the learners self-assessment.
Competencies are described in rubrics.
Utilizing a Progressive Inquiry type approach provides a good foundation for it encourages an iterative process for building understanding and deepening meaning. It also acknowledges the importance of peers and mentors in the learning process.
The aim of a video based peer assessment approach is to bring people to a level of mastery within a given subject area. The subject area needs to be appropriate for video as a medium for capturing demonstrated skills. We want people who already have basic competency in an area wanting to improve through peer review and feedback from others with greater expertise.
Step 1. Learners provide evidence of subject knowledge (traditional assessment) Step 2. Learners review rubric(s) describing competencies for level being attempted Step 3. Learner video is recorded and upload (privacy ensured as videos are only available to reviewer cohort and can be deleted once review is complete) Step 3.1. Uploaded video is immediately assigned a cohort of reviewers Step 4. Learner kicks of discussion by answering a number of system assigned self-assessment questions. Step 5. A small private cohort engages in facilitated discussions giving feedback focused by the respective rubric and learner answered self-assessment questions Step 6. Reviewers also get credit toward their progression through the levels for providing the peer review Step 7. For quality, reviews and videos are randomly / periodically critiqued by experts
In two coming posts I'll be describing the approach (or theory) behind the peer assessment and the technology infrastructure to support video based peer assessment.
A few months back I completed a small project to enable a simple single sign-on approach to product level information access. This wasn't a replacement for OpenID or anything like that, for that would be a crazy thing to take on. What I did was to build a way to assess whether a user had subscribed to one or more information resources within a site that contains many resources. What I created leveraged cookies, an expiry system, and the restful API. This was all good.
To develop all this I used an old Dell Inspiron laptop running a UAMP (Ubuntu, Apache, MySQL, PhP) stack. The project is now running in DEV and is moving into QA so I still need my development environment. I've got another development project where I want to evaluate the quiz / question modules available within Drupal and I want to create another virtual host on the UAMP development server. This is what I did to set up another virtual host in addition to the localhost already being utilized by the restful API project;
1) added a drupal to the hosts file with the IP 127.0.0.2 127.0.0.1 localhost 127.0.0.2 drupal
2) added a new file to the /etc/apache2/available-sites folder 3) edited the new file to include the correct virtual host entry pointing toward the drupal directory <VirtualHost 127.0.0.2> DocumentRoot /var/www/drupal/ </VirtualHost>
4) enable the site using the a2ensite command with the new file as the parameter 5) restart apache
All good. Now in the local browser I can run an instance of drupal being hosted at http://drupal
A month ago I was questioning the value of a University Education. Don't get me wrong, I think higher education is an awesome thing and I believe everyone should (and needs to) be a life long learner. I was just questioning the value of getting higher education at a University. I think there are better ways, particularly when you consider the cost (personal and through taxes) of attending a University. To me the better ways are through what is now available via the Internet (asynchronously 7 x 24). And considering the body of work regarding the different learning approaches (constructivism, connectivism and progressive inquiry apply very well, IMHO) and how these approaches are being incarnated on the Internet it becomes a compelling alternative to traditional higher education.
So all my questioning of the value of higher education was initiated from a few tweets with someone from the PR dept. of a local university and they asked me some great questions about where I was coming from on all this. The question that really stood out for me became;
"What I deem to be a worthy ROI on my tax funded educational investment?"
free access to research data - As a taxpayer I shouldn't have to pay for data or research that was created because of grants or the funding coming from tax dollars. There is great progress being made here as evidenced by much activity (a couple of examples; open access at Concordia, and the recent open access week at SFU). I look forward to all tax payer funded data and related publishing being available as open data. Suggestion: all grants, funded research, etc. should have openness written into their terms.
pedagogically aware professors - modern academic institutions haven't traditionally focused on the faculty having strong pedagogical skills. There is work going on here, though I do not feel it is enough. My experiences in working for the Instructional Development office of a major Canadian University provided me insights into how graduate, post-graduate and new faculty are developing pedagogical skills, but existing faculty are slow on the uptake. I do think a younger faculty population will make a big difference here, but weve got 10 to 20 years before the scale tips in the students favor. Do I believe my academically very successful daughter should attend a University in the next decade? Considering the Higher Education (HE) faculty pedagogical skills and the use of technology to support learning by HE institutions I believe she may better spend her time elsewhere... time will tell with this; it is good to see the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) has published ethical principles in university teaching and they include a principle on pedagogical competence. Suggestion: all faculty should have mandatory pro-d with focus on pedagogy.
improved assessment techniques - assessment still seems like a game show to me - executing exams, writing papers, completing projects and their subsequent grading doesn't capture what a person has learned during a period. Using these "traditional" approaches as a way to assess peoples knowledge on a subject is disconnected. When I think of the explicit knowledge vs. tacit knowledge that a person acquires (needs) to be successful. And when tacit knowledge is considered a greater part of our knowing I just don't see strong evidence that traditional assessment methods capture a persons knowledge on a subject. I believe that much better assessment techniques need to be developed in determining a persons capabilities and knowledge. A greater amount of effort needs to be focused upon assessment within academia. Suggestion: all institutions should have or participate in a center for assessment excellence. Active research should be going on here.
transparency and reduction of institutional boundaries - it seems to me that academic institutions are internally focused and overly competitive with each other. In a time where it is apparent that our future is knowledge based and our national (global) economic success is dependent upon our "national intelligence" our tax dollars should go to the greater good instead of funding intra-institutional dysfunction. As an example, why every time I apply to a new institution should I have to pay a fee to get all my transcripts transferred to the new institution? Shouldn't a national database of my academic accomplishments be available? Wouldn't it be nice to have a publicly available transcript served up by the institutions I have attended. As we move into a time where learning is more self-directed, we should be able to cobble together educational activities (courses, workshops, groups, etc.) without having to be conscious of which institution they are being made available. Should we leverage the course materials created by all Canadian institutions in similar subject areas? How different are the learning outcomes for all the same undergraduate courses across all institutions? How much tax payer $$$ are spent in duplicating the same course materials across Canadian institutions. If I was getting good ROI, institutional boundaries would have been eliminated years ago and I would have open access to my educational accomplishments and the accomplishments of the institution and its faculty. Suggestion: national online registry for transcripts (funded by students/alumni requesting transcripts); Incentives for more frequent publishing of OER.
cross institutional shared services - almost every public institution has a their own registrar, network and server farm, library, bookstore, publishing abilities, website, mail server, etc... why? I do not feel this is a good return on my tax dollars. All public institutions should be using our tax dollars more wisely by administratively getting together and creating shared services in all (or at least most) of these areas. There exist many examples of all these services available online. I'd like to challenge all publicly funded institutions of learning to work together to make use of shared services. We do have examples of this in BC with BCCampus... somehow we need to provide incentive to public institutions to adopt a shared services approach. Suggestion: reallocate funding toward shared infrastructure and provide the resources to make it really easy for institutions to adopt a shared services approach.
increase in blended approaches (reduce physical travel) - A lot of the content that makes up a course does not need to be consumed on campus. A lecture can easily be put online (either live streamed or archive), and if discussion is required a companion chat could be available for the live streaming and an asynchronous discussion can be available for the archive. Readings, self-assessment, discussion groups, podcasts, webinars, etc. can all be facilitated online. Therefore, when students do show up on campus this should be honored with pedagogically exceptional face-to-face learning experiences all supported by the online materials. All the lecture halls could be converted into hives of learning activities. If each HE course had > 50% of their required content online, the institutions could double their capacity without having to create new physical seats / classrooms. That creates a lot of capability without a large investment. Particularly if the institution uses the shared services approach mentioned in item 5. Then what they really need is an increase in their online faculty. Suggestion: increase focus on international, remote and adult students need for education (7x24), recognize revenue potential. Increase number of teacher faculty to take on super-mentor role.
reasonable priced graduate tuition - inspiring minds and emptying wallets; > $48,000 to get an Ed.D; > $28,000 to get a professional level PhD; that's a lot of money! When you think about the importance of highly skilled and knowledgable people are to a knowledge based economy, shouldn't my tax dollars be going toward easing our best and brightest to complete all the higher education they can get. Therefore, increasing our nations competative advantage and increase global investment due to our highly skilled workforce. nuf said! Suggestion: find ways to give it ALL back! Tax credits for completed graduate studies.
greater completion rates - a 2004 study found that both graduation rates and times to completion are problematic within graduate study programs across Canada. Upon further review it would seem that completion rates are lower in undergraduate programs. As a taxpayer I would like to see greater focus on completion. The amount of resources used in getting people into higher education (HE) and the costs that go into every year they stay is a poor return when over 30% don't complete. Suggestion: have faculty based super-mentors ensure greater completion rates; follow up, collaborate, encourage and cajole.
Given my potential direct investment of > $30,000 and who knows what from taxes, do I believe my daughter should spend six years in a University environment acquiring a Masters level credential? Given the age of my daughter I've got four years to decide, and unless I see changes toward what I have written above I honestly believe putting her in such an environment may be a disservice to her. IMHO it would be better for me to use the > $30k to support her self directed pursuits, help her create an effective PLE and find her some great super-mentors.
What I also find interesting is the potential positive impact what I am requesting would have on our economy and resilience as a nation. I also believe I am not alone in my thinking...
So as many of you know I have been working toward a bunch of stuff that includes software development using a Linux (Ubuntu actually), Apache, MySQL and PhP (LAMP server). To go even further with this, my software development includes using a RESTful approach to interoperability and a deep commitment to Test Driven Development (TDD). Getting to this point has included much research and many decisions along the way. I pretty much feel my 25 years in software development, in particular, 12 years as a solutions architect has gotten me to all these decisions. I really don't want to simplify my rationale, and that is a whole other conversation that makes a lot of sense also within the context of opensource, OER, online education, agility, etc... Soooooo.... this is what I have done in the last couple of days to upgrade my old DELL Inspiron 6000.
re-install of Ubuntu 9.04 to the production release (I've been running beta for while, I wanted some cleanliness and certainty to the release). - the big deal here was getting a plain old CD-R to burn the iso file onto. The more expensive CD-RW kept hanging on the install, I read a forum post about this. Simple is better when burning an iso it seems.
Once Ubuntu 9.04 was up and running (which was real easy after the CD-RW issue was resolved) I ensured the update manager had done its work in getting the new install up to date.
Then I proceeded to use the Synaptic Package Manager to bring in all the additional software I required, the list included;
i) Apache ii) MySQL iii) PhP iv) phpMyAdmin - its a great tool to assist with database admin and development v) cURL - well, I'm going to be doing some REST development, so I need some help.
Once all the software was installed I had a few configuration issues to deal with, these included;
i) setting the permissions on the /var/www directory so I could add and alter files and folders. You may want to do this in a different way, for me i wanted to work under the /var/www directory. ii) this also meant I had to add my Ubuntu user id to the the admin and sudo groups and also edit the sudoers file to not prompt me all the time for a password. iii) I also stumbled upon an idiosyncrasy with the default collation with mysql it defaults to swedish, so add the collation-server = utf8_general_ci config parameter to the my.cnf helps here.
I then downloaded the tar.gz for simpletest and installed into the www folder. I used the tar.gz instead of what was available through the synaptic package manager cause the synaptic version was missing a couple of files, in particular the critical autorun.php. I also allowed the Ubuntu Archive Manager to prompt me for the folder to extract the files.
So, in the end that was a days work with all the reading and research, banging my head, testing and getting it all running. In the end I did it twice yesterday, once on my Dell Mini 9 running Ubuntu 9.04 netbook remix in beta while I was trying to figure out why the initial inspiron install was hanging. Don't mind that though, gave me a chance to play (sandbox the install and configuration) in preparation for getting it done right once the inspiron was ready.
Particularly in the west, we've created a way of life that is fundamentally unsustainable. It is becoming increasingly evident that we are going to have to quickly change from using past sunlight (oil reserves) to using current sunlight. This will be a huge (HUGE) change in how we do things. This BBC two produced documentary is a good look to where things will have to go.
The way forward could follow permaculture approaches. This is a food growing system based on natural ecology. As time passes through the next century the human species will likely move toward re-ruralization and increasing percentages of the population will needs the skills and knowledge to utilize permaculture or like approaches to food production. What role are you going to fill?
Over the last few months I have become increasingly drawn into this CRC discussion. The one thing that has made the most sense is; to inform myself. I've read through much of the three websites of;
I also created a custom google search engine and pointed it at these three sites. This search engine can be found on this blog.
The one thing I am trying to find information is research, reference or case studies about successful high-density eco-villages on ISLAND environments. So far I have found none in any of these three websites, I could have missed something. As I expanded my search to the internet and architectural, social planning, human geography references I found very little on this subject. What I did find was references to building upon what you already have. Nothing on creating NEW villages. And when I looked at the village concept it pointed toward FIRST building density at the islands port (in our case, snug cove) and secondary or tertiary villages at major crossroads. This also seems to be the most natural and proven approach to densification of islands.
What I am looking for is the references that people are using in regards to building high-density sustainable villages on ISLANDS. I believe our being an island is a important factor in deciding the location of such eco-villages.
In my efforts to better understand this issues tied to Cape Roger Curtis I configure a custom google search engine. This custom google search points toward the following three sites;
We're turning the digital divide into digital dividends using free content and open networks.
As an active contributor to this wiki I feel I have benefited greatly from contributing. As a contributor I believe I have learned more than any individual content consumers (though I have no data to back this up, its just a feeling). I have come to believe that contributing to OER is the best way to learn from OER. It is the act of finding existing OER and reusing it or building upon it. If the OER doesn't exist for your chosen topic, then you have the opportunity to learn and build a new piece of OER.
I am currently involved in more than one discussion about how to encourage people to collaborate in the creation of OER. This is an interesting subject for I believe a number of factors impact OER collaboration. These factors are;
OER saturation
Licensing models
Platform
Localization
How these factors impact the growth of OER is best described within what I see as the OER roadmap. The roadmap has four phases;
Build-up - saturation of the subject areas from both an access (bandwidth, connectivity and platform) and localization (culture, language, etc.) perspective so that re-use is all that is left
Reuse - deepening the accuracy and diversifying the learning approaches and through a licensing approach (CC-BY-SA) that encourages reuse
Assessment - a maturing model of open access assessment (OAA1)
Accreditation - a globally recognized model of open access accreditation (OAA2)
I still see OER at the very beginning of the build-up phase. And given the solitary preparation methods many teachers already use, it is still a long way off to have saturation. I do believe the day will come. The other three are currently being worked on, but are dependent upon completion of the first to become mature.
So I'm preparing for my interview with ZenBiz radio. I was approached by Bruce Stewart because of my activity in using social media in community based initiatives. I believe society is just getting going with using the internet as the platform for citizen led electronic government initiatives. There is a lot going on in this space right now, and the "coronation" of President Obama has really legitimized citizens being able to ask for openness and transparency (municipal, regional and national) and for this information to be available as an API via the internet. Bruce asked that I have a quiet space and a landline for the interview. He also let me know I should expect questions in four themes. This post is my preparation for this interview.
1) Who am I, my relevant background
I would say the biggest impact upon why I am becoming increasingly involved with citizen based initiatives is a value given to me by my parents. Its the value of leaving somewhere in a better state than when you arrived. In general, I just don't see the "collective" we doing that. I believe if we increase citizen participation in caring for our neighborhoods and localizing our needs then we will be much more sustainable. I also believe government transparency will assist in this considerably. I also believe my technology and educator background combined with my work with Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) have also influenced me. I think my work with ICT4D has influenced me in how I think the "collective" we (in the developed world) expect to much. To be blunt I think in the west we have become lazy and are overly entitled. Its time we collectively stopped consuming so much and started being more grateful for what we have and put back. Lastly, I believe this YouTube presentation by Hans Rosling really taught me the importance of access to data and the social change it can assist.
I am involved with citizen based electronic government because I believe;
Citizen based initiatives are more sustainable
The developed world needs to give more back (or take much, much less)
Government transparency will be created from the grassroots
2) What I am doing regarding e-Gov't on Bowen Island (BOWEGOV)
With these beliefs what am I doing about it? When I reflect, I'm doing a fair amount. I continue as a contributor and council member for WikiEducator, and this experience has taught me a lot about self-organization. I am continually assisting organizations to be successful with social media, organizational learning and technology architecture. I have brought my understanding of all these things together by initiating the use of BOWEGOV as a tag / hashtag to tie everyone's work together. As with any community there are a lot of differences among the different people, groups, neighborhoods, etc. What else would you expect!?! I felt if we chose a social media (web2.0) approach that was technology agnostic and was platform independent it would have greater appeal. So with tagging people can use the client side tools (Mac, PC, Nokia, iPhone, Browser, Linux, Etc, Etc.) they want without the whole thing getting tied to a single technology platform (Wiki, Blog, Drupal, WordPress, MediaWiki, Google, Etc, Etc.). After some discussion with others we came up with the idea that the internet is the platform. So we're not tied to any single platform and as the internet evolves, innovates and improves so do we.
3) Reaction from the powers that be
The short answer, there has been no reaction. So far this initiative is only starting. We have contacted a couple of council members and had social conversations with the mayor about BOWEGOV tagging. Its a small town of 4000 so these conversations happen. I think it is way too early to expect any traction. The idea of using social media for government really got started around the same time as Obama became a democratic candidate Though their is earlier evidence of this, it really didn't get traction/acceptance till Obama. And the conceptual learning curve is steep for people indoctrinated into traditional forms of governing. I have sent an email to our municipal council (see related post). I think this email will be most useful to refer back to in a Kolb kind of a way. I believe the learning has started... when it gets traction is the unknown.
Recently I have been seeking ways to coordinate citizen based approaches in preparation to meeting with the powers that be. I think this needs to be a good experience in a more coordinated way. In my seeking I have found the visible government website. I really like how they describe themselves;
VisibleGovernment.ca is a non-partisan non-profit dedicated to promoting the planning, funding, and implementation of online tools for government transparency in Canada.
The visible government group has also recently hosted change camps to get local groups to start working toward this initiative. There will be a change camp in Vancouver on 28 March 2009. I believe all this work in creating transparency to government will have an impact. Even upon our local municipal government(s).
4) Citizenship involvement
On bowen Island we are fortunate in that we have a number of citizens active and involved in the community. And a lot of the efforts are toward influencing local politics (though this could be for better or worse). I believe it is a part of living in a smaller community. I do see it increasingly important that citizens start doing more for their neighborhoods. I believe that our current expectations for what our governments will provide is unsustainable. I believe citizens need to let go of government even sustaining the current levels of service. Services are going to become increasingly expensive and the tax dollars aren't there to increase service. What this means is that citizens have to become more active at a neighborhood level to offset the need for services. On Bowen Island we have had a number of people starting using Web 2.0 technologies to gather and communicate information. Here are a few;
I do believe all these technologies are useful, but I think the face to face activities of getting neighbors together are more productive. I think the electronic tools will compliment the physical neighborhood activities. As these Web 2.0 tools mature they will provide increasing abilities to gather data and provide transparancy. This transparency will go both ways it will allow citizens to see into the depths of how government decisions are being implemented (tax dollars spent), and it will provide community information sources to politicians as well as citizens. It is hoped that this increase in information sharing (or transparency) will enable citizens to make better decisions at a personal and neighborhood level as well as assist politicians make better decisions for their constituents.
A number of Bowen Island citizens with interest in social media are beginning to put together online citizen led approaches toward increasing citizen participation in our neighborhoods and community. The belief behind this activity is that if citizen participation increases from a grassroots level more will get done and people will feel increased responsibility and connection to their neighborhoods and community. It is also believed that citizen based neighborhood activities are a step toward lessening our environmental impact (the 100 mile diet could be considered and example, http://100milediet.org). On bowen island there have already been activities where neighbors have taken the time and energy to complete projects for the good of their neighborhood. I can see these neighborhood activities increasing and current technology trends provide online tools to assist.
All the changes occurring with politics, social media and transparency creates unprecedented opportunities for communication and openness. I believe their is an opportunity for the Bowen Island Municipality to be an exemplar in using technology to bring openness to municipal government. A project is forming to support this kind of initiative, see visible government; http://visiblegovernment.ca/index.php
A simple example of how this could work, could be for Bob (and or other council members) give brief online conferences of the provincial and federal rules and policies for running a municipal gov't. I am sure their are many simple and important municipal administrative topics that could occupy a 15 - 30 learning experience for the citizenship of Bowen Island. Increasing citizens knowledge in such matters could help in understanding how tax dollars are spent, how BIM adminsitrative processes work, public works function, etc... DimDim (http://www.dimdim.com) is a free social media service that could be used for such an activity.
There is already a building knowledge base using social media. This is being facilitated with the use of tagging, in particular the BOWEGOV tag. If you were to click the following links you would see how this tagging approach is connecting knowledge and allowing people to engage in ways they feel comfortable.
Where all this social media and transparency will go in relation to small municipalities is still to be seen, as it is still being "invented". I look forward to your support in building greater transparency and increasing citizen participation in local gov't. If you would like to discuss any of these topics further. Please do not hesitate to contact me, peter@rawsthorne.org or any of the others connected to these activities.
