Month: March 2008

How would you share your knowledge about online community?

You may have noticed that yet again I failed to post my Monday Funnies Video. Hey, sometimes you just have to wait until inspiration hits. My sister passed along the link to this amazing performance by Anita Renfroe. There are many versions on YouTube, but I picked this one because in the information box there are the lyrics. Take a listen: YouTube – The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture with Lyrics

Of course I enjoyed this both as a mom and as a daughter.
Anita nails it. What an act of knowledge sharing!

But the video inspired more.

I have been thinking about how to evoke the history online community as a thread of our current and future practices. My emerging idea is to look at the intertwining between personal stories about online community along with the technology development that has enabled this new form. I’m not so much interested in the precise history, but the intertwining between our desires to connect, our practices and how the technology community has responded to those pushes and pulls. From the early internet connections through BBS and email, to today’s microblogging and social networks. How might this more evocative retelling inspire our next practices and developments? I had initially thought about this in terms of a set of visuals. But after hearing Anita’s paean to a mother’s advice, I’m expanding my possibilities. Yes, I’m probably about to get in even deeper over my head and may capabilities. That’s why I need you.

Stories + Advice + evocative visuals + some sort of performance art. Can I pack that usefully into a 45 minute presentation at Community 2.0? Will it be USEFUL? I figure I’ll start by exploring each of these, then keep what rises to the surface.

I’ve asked you for your stories. (More still appreciated). Now I’d like you to give me any and all of your advice about designing, building, being in online communities. The shorter and pithier the better. I’ll try and do a version of Anita’s song. Can you help me? Post them in the comments or on your blog and put a link back to this post and I’ll find them. I’ll be, as always, in your debt.

Just as inspiration, here are Anita’s lyrics

“The Mom Song”

Get up now
Get up now
Get up out of bed
Wash your face
Brush your teeth
Comb your sleepyhead
Here’s your clothes and your shoes
Hear the words I said
Get up now! Get up and make your bed
Are you hot? Are you cold?
Are you wearing that?
Where’s your books and your lunch and your homework at?
Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat
Don’t forget! You gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, the experts tell us it’s the most important meal of all
Take your vitamins so you will grow up one day to be big and tall
Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today
Don’t forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play
Don’t shovel
Chew slowly
But hurry
The bus is here
Be careful
Come back here
Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside, don’t play rough, will you just play fair?
Be polite, make a friend, don’t forget to share
Work it out, wait your turn, never take a dare
Get along! Don’t make me come down there
Clean your room, fold your clothes, put your stuff away
Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day?
Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
Can you even hear a word I say?
Answer the phone! Get off the phone!
Don’t sit so close, turn it down, no texting at the table
No more computer time tonight!
Your iPod’s my iPod if you don’t listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you’re coming home?
Saying thank you, please, excuse me makes you welcome everywhere you roam
You’ll appreciate my wisdom someday when you’re older and you’re grown
Can’t wait till you have a couple little children of your own
You’ll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly
But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew, would appreciate
Take a bite maybe two of the stuff you hate
Use your fork, do not burp or I’ll set you straight
Eat the food I put upon your plate
Get an A, get the door, don’t get smart with me
Get a grip, get in here, I’ll count to three
Get a job, get a life, get a PHD
Get a dose of,
“I don’t care who started it!
You’re grounded until you’re 36”
Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven’s sake
And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said at least a thousand times before
That you’re too old to act this way
It must be your father’s DNA
Look at me when I am talking
Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place
Stop crying or I’ll give you something real to cry about
Oh!
Brush your teeth, wash your face, put your PJs on
Get in bed, get a hug, say a prayer with mom
Don’t forget, I love you
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom’s work never ends
You don’t need the reason why
Because, because, because, because
I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so
I’m the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!!
Ta da!!! (less)

Learning through sound

Today on our local public radio station KUOW I heard a great piece about Western Washington professor and scientist, Dave Engebretson. It was one of those “aha” moments about learning.Headphones
He puts together audio of music (or a collection of musical notes) derived from geologic and natural data. By listening to the patterns of the data rendered in music, we “hear” new things and experience new ways about learning about geology in ways we might never expect. This is an amazing example of finding the feeling and intellectual understanding in the data.

KUOW: Sound Focus
At 2:08 p.m. – Listening to the Universe

There is music associated with ocean tides, volcanic eruptions and the cycles of the moon and planets. David Engebretson is a professor of geology at Western Washington University in Bellingham. He lost most of his sight as a child and also developed a keen ear for sound and music. We visit David at his home studio in Bellingham to find out how he uses those talents to help his students better understand the Universe by listening.

Much like my recent experiences with visuals and my learning, Engegretson awakened new understanding by channeling scientific data into a musical format. The musicality of the Puget Sound tidal wave heights over time is spell binding and informative. I want to find more audio of his work.

 “I let the force of the sun and the moon play the tune.”

Engebretson talking about the tidal work. 

MP3 here (this story is just a minute or two in from the introductions)

Creative Commons License photo credit: James Lewis..

Honaria Starbuck Paints the SXSW Experience

Watercolor by Honaria StarbuckI’m not in Austin for the perennial geek culture fest that is SXSW. But via Twitter and blogs, I’m getting some vibes all the way up here in the northland.

My friend and artist Honaria Starbuck is doing some on the spot paintings of the panels she is attending. She is also including some short poetry. It is an evocative way to share what is going on, very personally filtered through Honaria. Here is an example from Andy Beal’s panel (her picture to the right). You can see all of her painting posts here.

This is yet another example of visual conference capture. Low tech, unlike the work of David Sibbet at TED I blogged about earlier this week. When we think about “harvesting” and “sharing” what is going on at a F2F event, the options are widening. No longer are we limited to text live-blogging, or photo streams. These artistic endeavors capture a “sense” and, for me, enhance the more literal text and audio captures.

Knowledge Sharing Toolkit – your feedback?

kstoolkitAre you interested in knowledge sharing tools and methods? Particularly if you work in non profits, NGOs or in international development? If so, I’d appreciate it if you took a look at a project some of us are putting together, The Knowledge Sharing Toolkit. From the draft “about” information:

This toolkit is a living knowledge repository about knowledge sharing. We created it to be a resource both for KS workshops and as an ongoing place to learn about, improve upon and generally share our knowledge sharing practices. There are other KS toolkits out in the world – many of them listed in our acknowledgments. Most of them, however, are static – not updated. We wanted to provide a place where we can share our practices in an on-going manner. So we invite you to improve upon any of the entries, leave your name and contact information if you can be a resource on a tool or method, and share stories (both success and “uh-oh – failure” types) of these methods and tools in use. Let’s help each other.

Edit in the wiki, comment in the wiki discussion tabs or leave your comments here. Thanks in advance!

Creative Commons License photo credit: Choconancy1

TED2008-BIG VIZ Production

I blogged last week that David Sibbet and others were doing real time digital graphic capture at TED. David Sibbet has posted a short video of the output. It is worth a minute to click over to his blog and see it. I can tell, I need to start learning more digital visual capture techniques! David Sibbet: TED2008-BIG VIZ Production.

David writes:

Here is a short video of the work I was doing at TED2008 with Tom Wujec, Kevin Richards, and John Schmeir of Autodesk and Phil David of Perceptive Pixel. …. Tom Wujec is now making an on-line book of all our drawings that will be available at www.autodesk.com.