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Tension in 2.0

Posted by John Panaccione on Tue, Nov 24, 2009 @ 09:13 PM
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Teaching with Twitter means students are more involved.
And that can take classes in risky directions.

A recent article ("Teaching with Twitter: Not for the Faint of Heart") in the Chronicle of Higher Education relates the challenges experienced by a few professors who apparently got more than they asked for when they offered their students the opportunity to use Twitter to post questions and comments about lecture material. In real time!

Unfortunately the report emphasized the sophomoric responses of a few rather than the spirit of inquiry that motivated these professors to open their lecture halls in the first place. Bravo to these open-minded educators who understand that their mission is to enable inquiry as much as it is to impart knowledge. In this regard, higher education should take a lesson from the world of business as it has embraced the tools of social networking to engage internal and external audiences and nurture innovation.

In "The Innovator's DNA" in this December's Harvard Business Review, Jeffrey H. Dyer, Hal B.Gregersen and Clayton M. Christensen point to five "discovery skills" that signal and nurture innovation:

1. Associating
2. Questioning
3. Observing
4. Experimenting
5. Networking

The authors share quite a few rich examples of how these skills have been practiced by some of today's greatest innovators, like Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Pierre Omidyar, Ratan Tata, Michael Dell and others. Connecting the dots between seemingly unrelated factors, probing into the status quo, gaining insights by seeing what is going on around them in a different light and putting yourself on the line by seeking contact with a diverse field and testing out these insights with those around you are some of the ways that these great innovators got their ideas off the ground.

It's true that some people seem to be born with these abilities but it is also true that such behaviors can be modeled, encouraged, and . . . taught.

In Web 2.0, we have the tools to nurture the depth of inquiry and breadth of networking as well to foster the level of knowledge sharing that can lead to the degree of association, observation and experimentation that fosters innovation. These tools form the essence of the programs LogicBay is partnering with our clients in higher education to deliver via our Enrichment Center platform.

A lecture hall that is "safe" for its professor is a dead end for inquiry. Open it up, I say, and when the kids get tired of tweeting nonsense, they and the rest of the class will see the real benefits of taking chances, and we will have done our job of making the world "safe" for innovation.

This blog article was written by Sheri Handel @ LogicBay.

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Comments

I agree with you on the ideal of moving innovation in our learning spaces. What I am interested is the knowledge gap and the problems created by said gap. For instance, allowing carte blanche tweeting (or anything) during a lecture is inviting trouble. So here the knowledge gap lies with the professor, not with the student. It is a lack of understanding 2.0. So how do we bridge the gap? Is it new innovation using existing social concepts as the baseline for a more internal software package? "Localized Twitter"? SaaS gives companies a whole new world of value added abilities to provide secure and monitored functionality to 2.0 based concepts in a private setting. I would tend to believe that entities both public and private would more willing to adopt SaaS based functions due to the lack of infrastructure cost. Do you see something like that as the interim solution, or is point A to B and that's all?
Posted @ Monday, November 30, 2009 1:35 PM by Conor Duffy
Thanks for your comments, Conor. I agree that an out-of-the-box social networking solution is not ideal for a higher ed audience, and this brings up at least a few key components of the LogicBay solution: user-centric design, ongoing collaboration with Subject Matter Experts, and support for delivery. Technology and design are meant to enable our clients to do what they do best. By providing an easy-to-navigate platform to deliver their programs, the design expertise to distribute them, and the ongoing support in the delivery of these programs, faculty can incrementally improve their technical expertise without owning that part of the process.
Posted @ Tuesday, December 01, 2009 9:54 AM by Sheri Handel
I was a network engineer for ten years before getting into my new field. I work with a number of SaaS based startups now and I have become addicted to the discussion of 2.0 in practical settings. The part I ran into most was, as you referred to, the "ownership" issue. It seems to be a double edged sword in some cases. I worked mostly in the SMB market and so scalability was a huge part of my daily vocabulary. When does third party "ownership" start having a negative return? I am playing devil's advocate here but I like to understand local startups. I started up myself in the infrastructure field, so the soft spot is there. I have through simple word of mouth been able to point some of my customers to some of these local startups for solutions. I like to be able to recommend locally in order to give business locally and also to give the most valued added service to my clients. It's a great concept you folks are working with. The knowledge gap with these new platforms are going to take, in my perspective, kidd gloves to bring to market. Thank you for your response and I wish you nothing but success. I will look for and read any white papers you may have on the site. If any of my client companies ask me for some direction, I will send them along. 
 
Posted @ Tuesday, December 01, 2009 10:15 AM by Conor Duffy
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A new paradigm

Posted by John Panaccione on Fri, Oct 30, 2009 @ 05:14 PM
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Small business certainly has its challenges in today's unprecedented economic times.  Uncertainty abounds.  You can't pick up a newspaper or listen to a news analyst predicting doom and gloom for the foreseeable future.   But as a leader of a small business that has survived the tumultuous first 5 years (we're working on our 7th year), I am more optimistic and excited about the days ahead than ever before.  Why?  Well, for starters, this nation and the capitalism that has contributed to its success has been driven by innovation.  Duress is a friend of innovation - it fuels it.  Under duress, people will try new things. They'll give new ways of reaching their goals a chance.  If the old way of doing things are just going to drive old results, then why do them?  When given a fraction of the resources but expected to achieve breakthrough results, taking  a careful look at other methods is now a more sound course of action than ever before.   Duress creates the environment for leaders to emerge and drive their organizations to success despite the challenges that they face.  These organizations will be the winners in these trying times. 

In our business, we offer new ways of achieving breakthrough results.  For years its been a tough sell.  To date, even though we've proven that some of the world's most established companies have adopted our technology and approach to solving big business problems works, many other people who have taken a look at what we have to offer simply didn't think it would work in their organizations.  However, it's different today.  

So, I'm excited about the times that lie ahead for us.  We live in a time in which the context of each day is "change".   Most people are naturally opposed to change, however change is in vogue these days politically and in the business world.  The context of change brings with it a new willingness to listen to new, proven approaches - deciding if the approach would work "here".  People are actually more receptive to listening to our approach than ever before.

This blog will be a record of experiences we are having with our customers and partners who are driving breakthrough results through the innovative use of new technology and processes.  It's also a recording of work and lessons learned we are involved with in partnership with new customers and partners.   It will not be an advertisement for what we do - see the rest of our web site for that.  Rather, it's a space in the virtual world where we will share our wisdom, and welcome yours.  What are you doing in your organization to innovatively drive results in trying times?  Share your stories along with ours!  Challenge anything written here, for it is the feedback from you that steers our strategy.  We welcome your views! - John

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