Sharing Guy's Journey

Peter Woytuk's Sculptures in Lakeville CT

2012-02-26T12:36:00.001-05:00

For those folks who think winter is a desolate time in New England, back off.

Yes, there's been little snow this year, and (although I'm not a snow-sports person myself), I do feel a surge of sympathy for the athletes who are not getting their "run in the snow" this winter.

But New England is anything but desolate. Had the good fortune to visit friends in Lakeville, Connecticut recently, and what a sparkling, beautiful week-end it was! No snow, but beautiful (cold) sunshiny days, and we had the special good fortune to head over to the Hotchkiss School. Famous as one of America's best schools, Hotchkiss has a student population of nearly 600 young people, coming from all over the United States and from 28 other countries. The arts are well supported at Hotchkiss, and one of my great pleasures was to discover the sculpture of Peter Woytuk, a beautiful trio of bulls "at rest" on the campus of the school. I couldn't resist, so here's one photo (more are at Peter Woytuk Lakeville 2012.02.18).

And watch this space. The Morrison Galley (which represents Woytuk) in Kent CT has build a large installation of Woytuk's works, running up Broadway in New York City. The exhibition can be seen at a number of the malls along the way, all the way from his elephants at Columbus Circle and ending with more bulls at 168th Street. You can read about the exhibition here, but as I say, watch for Mr. Guy's description. I intend to visit Woytuk's sculptures and share more impressions with you.

Nerisa Kamar: Knowledge Sharing in Africa

2012-02-07T10:02:00.000-05:00

Visitors to this site have often read about Nerisa Kamar, my great friend in Kenya.

Now there's more.

The latest issue of Information Outlook, the publication of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), includes a profile of Nerisa Kamar, who is with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. She works with UN-HABITAT's Knowledge Management Unit as Assistant Librarian for the Sergio Vieira de Mello United Nations Library at Nairobi.

In his introduction to the interview, author Stuart Hales writes:

"Books, journals, and other media are the lifeblood of libraries and information centers, and many librarians have their hands full organizing their collections of these resources and making them available to clients when and where they are needed. But for some librarians, simply procuring resources is a daunting task. These librarians may face a variety of obstacles - political restrictions, financial constraints, and institutional neglect, to name just a few.

"Librarians in much of Africa are familiar with these barriers, but SLA is helping raise their level of professionalism by connecting them with colleagues and providing them with leadership opportunities. One such librarian is Nerisa Kamar, who recently became president of SLA's Sub-Saharan Chapter. ... Information Outlook interviewed Nerisa late last year and asked her about the challenges that librarians in Africa face, how SLA can help them, and what she hopes to learn during the next few years to move her career forward."

Later in the interview, Hales asks Kamar about KM, and the KM concepts she applies in her work. Kamar responds:

"My personal interest in knowledge management is very strong, because it is my belief that KM and knowledge services make up the foundation and substance of modern librarianship. ... [They have been] useful for me in a number of ways. One is personal knowledge management, which occurs through information needs assessments and information alerts; another is knowledge sharing, by developing a rapport with information seekers to understand their actual information needs and meet them. Then there's knowledge services - creating an awareness of e-resources to which UN-HABITAT subscribes and sharing basic access skills to use with these resources. As an example of this activity, I developed a 15-minute presentation, 'E-Resource Awareness and Basic Search and Navigation Skills Training,' targeting all UN-HABITAT projects. Our presentations so far have been very successful, and satisfying to me as an information and knowledge professional."

Congratulations to Nerisa Kamar, Stuart Hales, and SLA for providing this fine example of how specialized librarianship, knowledge management, and knowledge sharing come together. It is a remarkable synergy.

New York Music - Gerre Hancock

2012-02-04T22:52:00.000-05:00

This is being written on Saturday morning, February 4, as I listen to the Solemn Requiem for Gerre Hancock, Organist and Choirmaster as St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, a musical establishment that played a long and important role in my avocational life. Slightly indisposed, I cannot attend the service, so I am extremely grateful to be able to listen from my home via a webcast.

It's hard to underestimate the influence of such powerful (and very kind) intellectual leaders in the musical world, and I believe all of us are greatly saddened that Gerry Hancock is gone. He was brought to St. Thomas (and to its highly esteemed choir school) in 1971 and worked diligently to build upon and make even greater the splendid music program that was already in place. There is hardly anyone in New York who does not recognize the important music that is presented through St. Thomas, bringing beauty to the lives of many, whether church-goers or not.

For years, New Yorkers have been drawn to St. Thomas Church, not just for the excellence of the music and the high place that the church's service music holds in the larger Anglican/Episcopalian community but for splendid concerts and records that bring much pleasure to all music lovers in this part of the country. The concerts presented by the St. Thomas Choir regularly fill the church to its maximum capacity, and many New York-area music lovers mark their calendars when the concerts are first announced. And while I have no first-hand indication of the numbers relating to the choir's success with its recordings, I certainly hear and read much about them, so I must conclude that they are popular.

So today we are honoring the memory of one of the church's great musical leaders, following in a great line of musical leaders. St. Thomas Church is famous for the excellence of its organists and choirmasters, and Gerre Hancock's great work at the church will always be remembered. Today's service ends with one of the church's most beloved hymns, "Ora Labora" ("Come Labor On"), composed by T. Tertius Noble, another of the Anglican Church's great musicians and organist at St. Thomas for thirty years, from 1913-1943. And, yes, it's one of Mr. Guy's favorite hymns (I'm very happy it will end the service and I just might sing along!). There can be no finer climax in honoring Gerre, whom many of us came to know and respect and love during our many interactions with him. By the time I came to St. Thomas, my chorister years - most notably at St. Stephen's in Richmond and at St. Bart's, a few blocks away here in Manhattan - had come to an end, so in that respect I was not a direct participant of Gerre's leadership as a choral leader. As a member of the parish, though, and as a sometime lay-reader, it was often my great thrill to be a "listening" member of the results (and, yes, as again a singer when we all joined the choir with our full-throated and wide-open-voice hymn singing, a tradition for which St. Thomas is famous).

So today's service is a very special opportunity to remember one of the great influences in New York's musical heritage, and it makes me very happy to share these thoughts and memories with my friends and colleagues. The service leaflet can be read here and you can listen to the service by going to the bottom of the St. Thomas calendar and selecting your choice for the transmission Windows Media Player or Quick Time).

Guy's Journey Continues - More "Reinventing"?

2012-02-04T22:36:00.002-05:00

Happy to be back. And I can't think of a more appropriate subject to begin with than how we think about our work and how we organize our lives so we have satisfying work. It's a challenge to make it all come together.

In our quest, we make much of Mr. Drucker's recommendation to "reinvent yourself." One colleague has even suggested that the idea itself has become something of a cliche.

Not from where I sit.

The whole topic of moving forward, of bringing one's self into an energizing and rewarding career - even if it means rearranging what one has previously been doing - is talked about a great deal among people I know, and recently that idea, long attributed to Peter F. Drucker, fell a little more neatly in place.

Reading The Daily Drucker on a regular basis is something of a tonic for many folks, and I'm among that group. And, as I say, since several of us have been speaking about the whole idea of reinventing one's self, I was delighted to discover that the Drucker reading for January 25 is, yes, the one about his recommendation that we go in this direction.

Captured for that date is this (from Drucker on Asia, published by Butterworth Heinemann in 1995):

"People change over such a long span. They become different persons with different needs, different abilities, different perspectives, and, therefore, with a need to 'reinvent themselves.' I quite intentionally use a stronger word than 'revitalize.' If you talk of fifty years of working life - and this, I think, is going to be increasingly the norm - you have to reinvent yourself. You have to make something different out of yourself, rather than just find a new supply of energy."

So since I've been away from these posts, has Mr. Guy been reinventing himself?

As usual, it depends on your perspective but I will mention that my professional life has broadened and now includes an important commitment to academic work. After tipping my toe into that (not totally unfamiliar) community as we developed the curriculum and began delivering courses to students for Columbia University's M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy program, I find myself very happy about what we are doing. I now have three roles in this work: I teach, I serve on the program's advisory committee, and I'm an adviser to the program. Just delighting in this new experience.

The company where I've been employed for nearly 30 years - SMR - continues to satisfy (there's more about SMR here). In addition to my contribution to the delivery of our company's products (management consulting and strategic learning), I'm lucky to be able to continue occasional blog posts for our clients and colleagues (and apparently for many others who pick up on what I'm writing via numerous LinkedIn knowledge management groups). It's our intention to have the posts appearing on a weekly basis, written either by me or guest bloggers, so watch for and respond to what we have to say. Our posts appear here.

We're also continuing our occasional SMR Special Reports (the latest are here and here). And if you're not reading Guy St. Clair's Knowledge Services Newsletter, let me invite you to do so. It's my free monthly newsletter, just started. I hope to provide a couple of comments or thoughts each month, together with a reference to another site or two. Sign up here. Just insert your e-mail address at the space in the upper right-hand section of the screen. You'll be automatically subscribed, and you can opt out at any time.

So we're probably going to see some mixing of Mr. Guy's professional interests with his personal life, since they're so closely connected anyway. This blog will continue with comments and references to just about anything that interests me, including my professional activities. A lot of attention will focus on my life in New York (as with the following, about one of our great musical leaders in the city) and on what I'm reading, how I'm entertaining myself, the people I'm interacting with, and just about anything else I want to write about.

I look forward to again sharing comments and thoughts with you, and to your comments about what I have to say.

KD/KS in Practice: Recognize What Works!

2011-10-05T11:06:00.001-04:00

We don't limit knowledge development and knowledge sharing to the workplace.

For many of us, we also like to look at how KD/KS is practiced in emerging societies.

Now we have an opportunity to give credit where credit is due.

Infinite Family is an organization doing really exemplary work in Africa. Through Infinite Family's mentoring program, African teens have a better chance of becoming productive members of their schools, villages and countries. With Infinite Family, adults worldwide use the internet to mentor African teens individually and face-to-face, filling the void left by adults who aren't there, and providing African teens with the opportunity to discuss, challenge, teach, encourage, befriend, and love.

It's an amazing program, and now Amy Stokes, Infinite Family's founder, has been recognized as a Top Ten CNN Hero for 2011. The award recognizes everyday people changing the world, certainly the case for what Infinite Family is doing.

But there's more: we can vote for Amy, to propel her to CNN HERO OF THE YEAR. If our votes put her over the top, Infinite Family will be awarded USD250,000 to invest in furthering its work with young people in Africa.

So take a look at Infinite Family and read about Amy.

Then vote here (the link is: http://heroes.cnn.com/vote_en.aspx).

Please vote and vote often. You can vote up to 10 times per day from each email account until all votes are tallied on December 7th. And please ask your friends to vote.

Let's make Amy Stokes the CNN Hero of the Year and raise those funds for Infinite Family.

What a great way to celebrate knowledge development and knowledge sharing. KD/KS really does help make the world a better place!

Looking for The Good Life - Making Some Choices

2011-09-30T08:47:00.000-04:00

Friend Tom Rink posted a couple of intriguing quotes today.

In Hodgepodge of Advice? Tom provides us with some phraseology that connects with something I've been thinking about for a few days now.

First, Tom quotes an unknown author:

"Live life and take chances.
Believe that everything happens for a reason and don't regret.
Love to the fullest and you will find true happiness in life.
Realize that things go wrong and people change, but things do go on.
Sometimes things weren't meant to be.
What is supposed to happen will work its way out."

Then there's a quote from Marilyn Monroe:

"I believe everything happens for a reason,
people change so that you can learn to let go,
things go wrong so that you can appreciate them when they are right,
you believe lies so that eventually you learn to trust no one but yourself,
and sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together!"

Tom's quotes seem to fit with one I came across the other day. I appreciate both (although I do veer a little away from Marilyn's suggestion that we learn to "trust no one but yourself" - sorry, Marilyn. Trust is all, and when we stop trusting we become - in my opinion - somewhat less - for lack of a better word - than we can be).

Despite my digression, I appreciate - as I say - both of the quotes Tom's shares with us, and taken with the quote I found, there's a useful message for us.

In New York, one of our prominent citizens, Frank Forrester Church IV, died a couple of years ago. I knew him slightly, and always felt very privileged when we shared a brief conversation or two. When Forrester died, he had been for a number of years Senior Minister at All Souls Unitarian Church on the Upped East Side of Manhattan. While I wasn't a worshiper at his church or even much of a believer, I was always impressed with the man's kindness and with his ability to listen. These splendid attributes came through clearly in any conversation.

Recently I ran across a memorial essay about Forrester, in a publication of an organization we both belonged to, and I was reminded of one of the most fascinating things he said. The essay's author referred to the statement as Forrester's "mantra," and perhaps it was (not being part of his regular community, I had not heard him say it but once, perhaps twice).

But he did share it with me, in one of our conversations when we were speaking together on some subject about how people move forward with their lives. We were talking about how people feel better about themselves if they can find time to care a little about others and, if they can, move a little away from being as self centered as many of us tend to be.

In our conversation, Church said something about a phrase he tried to live by (that "mantra" the memorial essayist was referring to):

"Want what you have, do what you can, be who you are."

It seems to sum up everything that unknown author of Tom's and Marilyn Monroe were saying, doesn't it?

If we accept who we are, if we don't allow negative experiences to turn into set-backs, if we have the confidence just to keep looking to the future and stop focusing on things that are not really important to our own definition of the "good life," it's not that hard to be comfortable with what life throws our way.

"...preaching the gospel of information - the knowledge-driven community...."

2011-09-21T21:01:00.000-04:00

Take a look at an inspiring new video report about Africa's Arid Lands Information Network.

Read about ALIN here and find out how knowledge development and knowledge sharing (KD/KS) is happening in places where it's needed most.

Ten Years Later

2011-09-11T18:12:00.000-04:00

The New York Philharmonic seemed to set the stage for me.

Like most New Yorkers, I was approaching this anniversary with a slight sense of trepidation. After 9/11, people throughout the world had been greatly sympathetic and supportive to the citizens of New York, Washington, and that tiny community in Pennsylvania where the fourth airplane fell. And ten years ago - as we learned how much people cared and wanted to help - we soon became aware that people could not have been kinder or more concerned.

It was an awe-inspiring time in our society, and for those of us directly cannected to the tragedy we all knew and greatly appreciated the many efforts made to help us through those difficult days.

Yet ten years later, as the anniversary of 9/11 approached, most of us had moved on. We are living in a different world now and, yes, one greatly changed by the actions of that horrible day. But we had - nevertheless - moved on.

So I worried a little about what my personal observance of the day would be. In other years, I simply stayed home, going on with my work or daily activities as I could, pausing now and then to remember and reflect, and - solaced by the appropriate music offered by our local classical station (WQXR) - just not making too much of the day. And, I learned, that seemed to be the approach taken by many of the friends with whom I interact on a regular basis. It seemed just right thing, not to make too big a "thing" of 9/11, to simply go on with my life but in doing so to be aware of the day and all that it stood for.

So this 10th anniversary approached, and it was the New York Philharmonic Orchestra that came up with the perfect solution for Mr. Guy: "A Concert for New York," offered free to those who wanted to come to Avery Fisher Hall (or sit in the Lincoln Center Plaza outdoors and watch and listen through the state-of-the-art technology that was available), with a recorded performance tonight on public television and on the Philharmonic's own site.

The work chosen for our observance was Gustav Mahler's 2nd Symphony, our beloved "Resurrection Symphony." It could not have been a more perfect selection. With a visiting friend from Berlin, we got to the hall in time to get tickets for inside, and it was a performance never to be forgotten. We are - many thousands of us - extremely grateful to the New York Philharmonic.

Is there anything more to say? I think not, considering all that has been said by so many. I'm not confident that anything I could say would add much, so I'll share what I wrote to my friends and colleagues in 2001 as we were living through the awful days of that autumn:

"William Faulkner said this is his Address Upon Receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature on December 10, 1950:

"'It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.'

"Is love included in this list? I think so, for it is love for humankind that enables that soul to rise to compassion and sacrifice and endurance, and it is that love that brings us together in the roughest and most difficult of times. Through these times, we will endure. And we will prevail. It won't be easy, and it will require - no, demand - of us sacrifices that we haven't even begun to think of yet. But through it all, we will endure and we will prevail... because we love.

"Let us never forget those we've lost... those who have been left behind to love us... those whose love made us who we are...."

David Brooks Helps Us Understand Ourselves: "The Social Animal"

2011-07-11T22:50:00.000-04:00

One of best entries into the spring (now summer) reading sweepstakes has been The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, by David Brooks. I highly recommend Brooks's book, and I found myself getting all caught up in the growth and development, transitions, adventures, and final resolutions of the couple Brooks uses to convey his message.

Harold and Erica are a fictional couple, and Brooks cleverly uses them as the vehicle, so to speak, to express his many ideas about the role of non-cognititive influences in our lives. Some reviewers didn't much like the technique, but it certainly worked for me. And despite to rough treatment from some of his critics (one reviewer stated that the fictional characters "do not come to life" and referred to them and others in the story as "mannequins for the display of psychological and social generalizations," a depiction that - to me - is 'way off base), Brooks's imaginary couple is a makes sense. Using this technique is a very good way for Brooks to tell his story and make his point.

Let me explain: I spend my professional life dealing with knowledge management (KM) and what we call - in our industry - knowledge services. One of the accepted tenets of good KM is story-telling. Why? Because it has been a technique used throughout mankind's history (well, as far as we know) and we know it works. Certainly for the last several thousand years, we've conveyed ideas and illustrated what needed to be conveyed by putting the content into a story of some kind. Much energy and effort has gone into the study of story-telling, and everybody accepts that it's easier to make a point with a story than simply to state and re-state a lot of facts.

So let's cut David Brooks a little slack here. He has some very good points to make, and if he chooses to make those points through characters he creates, why not? And his message is an important one, for Brooks is sharing the idea that the conscious decision-making "tools" we've come to accept over the years are supplemented - often to a great degree - by non-cognitive influences that we don't have much control over, or give much thought to.

Here's how Brooks described this idea in an essay obviously closely related to the book ("Social Animal: How the New Sciences of Human Nature Can Help Make Sense of a Life," in The New Yorker of January 17th of this year):

"Over the past few decades, geneticists, neuroscientists, psychologists, economists, and others have made great strides in understanding the inner working of the human mind. Far from being dryly materialistic their work illuminates the rich underwater world where character is formed and wisdom grows. They are giving us a better grasp of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, predispositions, character traits, and social bonding, precisely those things about which our culture has least to say. Brain science helps fill the hole left by the atrophy of theology and philosophy."

Of course. And thanks to being to read about how all these different and hardly acknowledged (by most of us, at least) influences affect how Harold and Erica live their lives, Brooks has helped me understand some of what goes on in my life. And in the lives of lots of people with whom I interact on a regular basis.

"Mannequins"? Hardly.

Thanks, David Brooks, for providing me with such a well-told story and at the same time teaching me something about myself and the world I live in.

America's Birthday

2011-07-04T10:22:00.000-04:00

The Fourth of July is a very special holiday for all Americans, and all of us have our own way of celebrating. Of course there's the now-obligatory picnic, although nowadays it's more likely to be a barbeque with friends instead of a drive down the road to a picnic on the grass. And some places still have parades, and almost everywhere there are fireworks and band concerts and just lots and lots of celebrating.

Patriotic music is a big part of the picture, and some of our radio stations spend the entire day (or an entire week-end, as with this year's four-day week-end, thanks to the Fourth of July being on a Monday) playing nothing but "patriotic" or, at the very least, "all-American" music, honoring many of the great American composers. So we hear a lot of Copland and Ives and Ned Rorem and many, many American folk songs. All great fun, and all very appropriate.

And as it turns out, one of our most beloved 19th-century American composers, Stephen Foster, was born on July 4th, so we get a big dose of Stephen Foster as well (ever wonder what he had in mind when he wrote about Jeannie with the light brown hair "tripping where the bright steams play"? was she falling on her face in the river and he thought that was romantic?).

OK. We'll move away from the disrespectful.

Back to American music. At my house, the playing of the Peter Wilhousky arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has been part of the ritual for as long as I can remember. During the big day itself - or even, as I say, over a long holiday week-end if we are that lucky - we'll hear many different arrangements (both orchestral and choral) of this stirring anthem. And even though it is a Christian hymn, non-Christian Americans don't think of the piece as divisive or "slanted" or even particularly religious, simply because it came into our culture as a campfire spiritual and became one of the most inspirational songs of the American Civil War in the 1860s. It's part of our musical heritage and our historical legacy.

The Wilhousky arrangement was special in our family because it was the one we learned in our high-school chorus (and our teacher, Mrs. Marie Reynolds Dobbs, still lives in Radford, VA and hopefully, if someone shows her this post, her memories will be as happy as mine as we think about this great national hymn). Wilhousky was a popular American composer, orchestra leader, and music educator, and he became famous for his arrangement of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" which is, according to some, probably the most famous arrangement of the hymn after the 1940s in the United States.

That fame was greatly strengthened in the 1950s or so (perhaps a little later - one big concert in New York was on November 6, 1958) when the 330-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the great Eugene Ormandy, teamed up to tour the country. Among the most popular selections performed on the tour was Wilhousky's arrangement, and with the publication of the LP of some of the selections performed on tour, Julia Ward Howe's hymn became standard fare for every chorus in the country. And I was lucky to be singing in one of them.

My own LP (actually, there were eventually two) is now long-gone, but there's a very decent (and definitely stirring) performance available on YouTube. No, it's not the Philadelphia and there's no Eugene Ormandy but it's pretty powerful. Have a listen - go here and you won't come away unmoved. It's a performance of the choir on tour at the Chautauqua Institution, recorded on June 23, 2008.

Almost equally stirring - for this listener - was Sunday's broadcast of Kent Tritle's The Choral Mix, broadcast on WQXR in New York (and hopefully syndicated throughout America). It was a super show, and this one - appropriately enough - featured performances of the Singing Sergeants of the United States Air Force. And yes, the broadcast ended with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" - not the Wilhousky arrangement but a super-stirring performance anyways.

Happy Birthday, America.

The New Croton Dam / Croton Gorge Park - Another of New York's Hidden Treasures

2011-05-29T08:13:00.000-04:00

A great pleasure of living in this place is the discovery of these "hidden treasures," places one can visit and enjoy and, often, without any special or costly effort. The Croton Dam Reservoir is such a place, hidden away up in Westchester County, not anywhere near the big and well-traveled interstate highways, and just there for those who know about them.

Our crowd first discovered the Croton Dam about three years ago when we were out for a Saturday drive with a couple of elderly friends. We drove over a bridge we had crossed many times, saw a nicely paved side road and decided to drive down that road. There was hardly any traffic, and we were a little surprised when a car drove up behind us and the driver blinked his lights, apparently trying to signal us. He passed us, then pulled off the road and indicated we should pull off as well.

This man looked respectable enough (although our "safety-first instincts" did make us wonder if we should pull over and speak to someone we didn't know), so we took a chance. I rolled down the window and he said, "I can see by the way you're driving that your out for a ride. Is this your first time here?"

We said it was, and he said, "Well, just be sure you enjoy all there is to see. Have you ever been to the dam?"

"What dam?"

He grinned, and gave us directions for a short drive down the road to the New Croton Dam, which holds back the water of the Croton Reservoir (or part of it - apparently the so-called "Croton Reservoir" is a series of reservoirs). He told us about Croton Gorge Park, some 97 acres of grassland just below the dam, where visitors can picnic, loll on the grass, or - if they're ambitious enough - climb up the steep hill to level themselves with the top of the dam (it's where the Old Croton Trail begins, if hiking is your thing), and then walk across for unbelievable views of this splendid countryside.

We were impressed. And no longer frightened! So we thanked him, and off we went, for one of the most remarkable experiences we've had in our drives about. And our elderly ladies couldn't have been happier.

The New Croton Dam is an amazing engineering accomplishment. Westchester County's website provides the information (and explains why the dam is referred to as "new," since the "old" dam now sits deep down in the water of the reservoir):

"The Old Croton Dam, built to supply New York City with water, was the first large masonry dam in the United States. Completed in 1842, it was the prototype for many municipal water supply dams in the east during the mid-nineteenth century. The city’s needs, however, soon outgrew the Croton Dam water supply. Consequently, work began on the New Croton Dam, also called the Cornell Dam because of its location on land purchased from A.B. Cornell, in 1893. Completed in 1907, the Cornell Dam stands over 200 feet high. The Croton Reservoir has a capacity of about 34 billion gallons of water with a watershed covering 375 miles."

And here's the kicker: our ladies - one 85 and the other 89 - had lived in New York City all their lives, and neither had ever been to this place before! As of course neither had we, and we can't keep it to ourselves, so go to New Croton Dam (May 21, 2011) to see more of Mr. Guy's photos.

It was a remarkable experience, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Now we return from time to time (it's only about an hour's drive - or less - from where we live in Manhattan), often just to see the place but, when the weather's nice, for a picnic with friends. Great fun!

"Arcadia"

2011-05-26T21:09:00.000-04:00

We New Yorkers take great pride in having so many cultural activities at hand, and truth to tell, thanks to an ever-growing interest in the arts throughout America, New York isn't all that unique anymore. Some of our country's best theater performances take place in other places, and certainly New York has its competition when it comes to "serious" theater.

Still, we do have some special activities, brought about - I would guess - because there is a such critical mass in the area. We have lots of people who will spend money to see a classic or less-popular play, and the current revival of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" is a good case in point.

Returning to Broadway after 16 years or so, this wonderful story connecting modern England to what one commentator refers to as "pseudopastoral" England provides a delightful intellectual journey over the years. Always stimulating, the play tends to keep listeners either on the edge of their seats (so they won't miss a single reference) or they leave at the intermission. There doesn't seem to be any "in-between" with respect to Stoppard's verbiage, and you can see why. He loves words, and when I read a rather tiresome review of this revival a few months back, my first reaction was "This critic doesn't like language - he doesn't like words." (A pretty sad commentary, in fact, about someone who makes his living as a writer.)

The play is great fun, ostensibly about life in 1803 when the landed gentry were changing their landscaped gardens from (their version of) "classical" to something more rustic (and equally artificial), a sort of ersatz "gothic" or "nature"-like form. There is even reference to the great English landscape designer Humphry Repton, complete with a dummied-up prop representing the "before-and-after" book he showed to clients, with pop-up type cutouts demonstrating how the gardens would look when transformed by himself and his workers, except that the cutouts are backwards from the Repton books. (Or, as described by Stoppard in the script: "The sketch book is the work of Mr. Noakes, who is obviously an admirer of Humphry Repton's 'Red Books.' The pages, drawn in watercolours, show 'before' and 'after' views of the landscape, and the pages are cunningly cut to allow the latter to be superimposed over portions of the former, though Repton did it the other way round.")

The early 19th-century scenes in the great house are cleverly contrasted with a second tale - taking place in the same rooms - set in the present, and much of the fun comes from watching the interplay of the two periods of time (and their people), plus trying to figure out the certain mysteries that are sneaked into the dialog.

No matter. Stoppard's ability to combine good story-telling with magnificent word-play leads to a charming evening, full of fun and puns and silly (and sometimes very serious) references. I always feel like I have had a wonderful time of it whenever I leave one of Stoppard's plays. I've been stretched, so to speak, and that was certainly the case with this revival of "Arcadia." I saw the play first at London's famous old Theatre Royal Haymarket back in 1993, the year it opened. It had a wonderful cast, and I loved Felicity Kendal as the leading actress and Rufus Sewell as the young tutor, a role Billy Crudup made famous when he made his Broadway debut in the part. I saw Crudup then, when I saw the play again in New York, and I was delighted to see him back in this revival. This time, thought, he is in a role - the leading man (or one of them) - that is as different as light from day from his role as Septimus Hodge, the tutor.

Sadly, as is often the case with revivals of well-established works, this version of "Arcadia" is a limited run, closing at the end of June. Will I try to go again, for another night of intellectual stimulation and pleasure? We'll see.

Farewell to Dame Joan Sutherland

2011-05-24T12:06:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to the Metropolitan Opera Guild for the beautiful program in memory of Dame Joan Sutherland, presented last Tuesday night (May 17, 2011). Since her death on October 10, 2010, there had been two memorial services, including a State Memorial Service on November 9, 2010 at the Sydney Opera House and a service held in Westminster Abbey on February 15, 2011.

This program, though, seemed to have been more "personal" in concept, and that seems just right. Sutherland had a very special place in the hearts and minds of her many American friends and fans, and it was good to have a remembrance event that was organized - obviously by intention - to capture both the professional strengths of this hard-working woman's career and the happier, more down-to-earth approach to her work (and to her life) that she will always be remembered for.

The Guild's program was titled "Stupenda!" and it was appropriate, since the public and the press had anointed her "la stupenda" after her Italian debut, in Venice at Teatro La Fenice in 1960. The name stuck (indeed, there's even a marvelous statue of Sutherland with that name at the Royal Botanical Gardens near Melbourne), and it made sense to title Tuesday's program with a word much associated with this great lady.

And there was an appropriate sub-title, too, "A Loving Tribute." It couldn't have been a more accurate description for the evening. Even the theater itself was chosen with loving care, New York's famous old theater, Town Hall, which had been the site of Sutherland's New York debut in February 1961, in a concert performance of Bellini's Beatrice di Tenda. After her long-awaited recognition as a (perhaps the) leading opera singer performing the bel canto repertoire, recognition which came with her performance at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on February 17, 1959 in Franco Zeffirelli's production of "Lucia di Lammermoor," Sutherland had made her American debut at the Dallas Opera in 1960, and then she came to the Metropolitan Opera on 26 September 1961, singing Lucia to almost-unheard-of acclaim.

As a devoted fan I spent many well-remembered and very special hours in attendance at Sutherland's performances at the Met, and more often then not, listening to her whenever she appeared in a Saturday afternoon opera on the old Texaco (now Toll Brothers) radio broadcasts. Once I had arrived in New York, in the late sixties, I was at the opera house for many of her performances, and often at her concerts as well, including those with Lucio Pavorotti after he became a big star. There were also several - if I'm remembering correctly - hugely successful recitals at the Met, some on Sunday afternoons. A special memory of mine is her performance in the Met's 100th anniversary gala in 1983 (October 22). At that splendid day-long event, Sutherland - with Bonynge conducting - closed the first half of the afternoon program with Rossini's "Bel raggio lusinghier" from Semiramide, bringing down the house! It was a special delight to me and I still have fun re-playing my nearly worn-out old video of that performance! Like her final appearance for us in New York, in a concert at the Met in 1989, this is one of my happiest Joan Sutherland memories.

Marilyn Horne, Sutherland's great friend and professional colleague, was the host for the tribute program. It was a delightful and very well-organized event (and of special note, it should be noted, was the excellence of the video and other technical preparations and implementation - whoever did this did a splendid job). The entire program was all designed to provide us with an accurate demonstration of Sutherland's big, full voice, including excerpts from many opera performances, concerts, recitals, and even the television shows. Yes, there she was, on "The Ed Sullivan Show." And, yes! On "The Dinah Shore Show"! Not only was Sutherland's amazing talent on display, we got to enjoy the light-hearted and very funny side of her personality as well.

As I said, the planning for the event also demonstrated that the program had been arranged with loving care, and the comments and shared memories of such musical luminaries as Sherrill Milnes, Spiro Malas, Regina Resnik, Martina Arroyo, and, finally, Conductor Richard Boynenge, all brought Sutherland again to us for one last time. Boynenge's remarks were particularly poignant, for not only had their long marriage been truly a personal and professional partnership, his obvious respect for and encouraging role in Sutherland's success came through sweetly and touchingly. He is obviously very proud - as he should be - to have been with her throughout her long career.

All of us who love great music are very indebted to the Metropolitan Opera Guild for putting this together, and indeed, to both the Guild and to BNY Mellon Wealth Management, corporate sponsors for the program. We are very grateful to all the people involved in this loving tribute, for enabling us to share these very precious memories.

More of Central Park

2011-05-04T07:34:00.000-04:00

A few more comments about my nice excursion into Central Park last Friday, my afternoon full of walking, enjoying the spring flowers and happy to be having a break from the usual busy schedule. Just wandering about, with no particular goals in mind. Just strolling on toward downtown, toward my own neighborhood.

About halfway down the park, after I tired of looking at the scenery, I stopped at the Boathouse for a coffee and spent a terrific hour continuing with David Brooks' The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. [Isn't the iPad 2 great? I like the Kindle app on the iPad 2 better than the Kindle!] Terrific book, and a super way to while away some time in a beautiful setting.

Then on with the walk, all around to Bethesda Fountain, a popular gathering place for all sorts of New Yorkers. And why not, on such a day? According to some, Bethesda Terrace (of which the fountain is merely the central element) is the "defining feature" of Central Park, but I might argue with that.

I would not argue the beauty of the spot, though. Designed by English-born architect and designer Jacob Wrey Mould, a close collaborator of Calvert Vaux, Bethesda Terrace is best known for all the carvings throughout the design. I failed to do justice to them with my photographs last Friday (so watch for an update in the not-too-distant future - I'll take another day just to capture the carvings at the Bethesda Terrace) In the meantime we can delight in The Angel of the Waters Fountain (also known simply as "The Bethesda Fountain" of course), dedicated in 1873, the work of Emma Stebbins, the first woman sculptor commissioned by the City of New York to create a major work.

My Friday walk continued on down The Mall, intentionally designed to be the only straight line in the park (that tells us a little about what Olmsted and Vaux had in mind, doesn't it?). At the end of The Mall, at a section sometimes called "Literary Walk" - I presume because of the literary figures whose statues are there) - I had fun surveying some of the statues and thinking about what life must have been like when they were erected in the 1870s and 1880s. Then another few minutes resting, looking across the end of the park at our beloved Plaza Hotel, still a great monument to an earlier, more graceful time in New York's history.

A few photos commemorating my walk are at More Central Park Springtime Photos.

Springtime in New York's Central Park

2011-05-01T11:40:00.000-04:00

Spring comes to New York's Central Park

For those of us who live in New York, there are plenty of times for quiet thought and life without the daily stresses that seem to characterize urban living in the minds of so many people.

Indeed, the idea of our city as a loud, disruptive place probably comes from somewhere else; it's been my experience for the entire time I've lived in New York (won't tell you how long) that when a New Yorker wants to find a quiet space, he'll know where to go.

And sometimes it's a place where there are lots of other people, but the space is so grand that we don't interact with each other unless we decide to.

Central Park is one of those places. I recently decided to take an afternoon off and head for the park. Often called "the nation's backyard" (a nickname I've never really figured out, because it's really New Yorkers who take advantage of this "backyard" - oh, well), Central Park's 843 acres are the product of the great minds of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. These great masters spent over ten years building the park, and while many people seem to think the park is the last remaining vestige of the city's "natural" land forms, they're wrong. The park is completely man-made, and (as Sara Cedar Miller points out in the best of the many books on the park, Central Park: An American Landscape), in the 1850s it was "America's greatest example of the marriage of aesthetics and engineering."

"Cleopatra's Needle"

I love the park, and I never tire of sneaking a peek at some of the less obvious things to look at. I love the way the statues often seem to suddenly appear amidst some foliage (especially when blooming, like right now). On Friday I had fun with the Carl Conrad statue of Alexander Hamilton, which could easily - in all the blossoms - have been missed. And demonstrating that New York was not to be outdone by European cities with their placement of ancient monuments within the city's borders, our popular "Cleopatra's Needle" truly is an ancient obelisk, dating from c. 1450 B.C. Its placement in the park, though, separates New York a little from its European urban precursors, since they put their ancient obelisks in prominent locations, usually a public square (and that was what Vaux wanted to do, but he didn't win that battle).

Friday's springtime-in-the-park photographs can be see here.

Travel Writing: Freya Stark

2011-04-27T12:13:00.000-04:00

Searchquotes.com

Long before many of us started to put pen-to-paper (as the old saying goes), there were travel writers galore. Indeed, whole libraries are devoted to travel writing, so we amateurs are always on the lookout for good examples.

One of my favorite authors, going back to my childhood (I have no idea who introduced me to her writings) is Freya Stark. An amazing lady, Stark (1893-1993) was famous for her story-telling, and the exotic lands she went to simply provided yet one more structure on which she could frame her stories. Claudia Roth Pierpont writes about Stark in "East is West: Freya Stark's Travels in Arabia" in the April 18, 2011 issue of The New Yorker and notes, "As an explorer, Stark could claim no major discoveries, but her acute observations and her surveying skills had earned her professional respect and, for cartographic contributions, a Royal Geographic Society award."

So she was more than a story-teller. But those "acute observations," together with an strong talent for getting to know the people she was meeting and listening to what they had to say, provided the foundation on which her descriptions of her travels through Syria, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, and Yemen were built. Pierpont's commentary even includes a sort of mini-essay on slavery as practiced in that region of the world when Stark was travelling there. Another describes Stark's efforts to build the Brotherhood of Freedom ("her proudest accomplishment," Pierpont writes), which Stark set up to counter the efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood - which had been around for a while for "training Arab fighters against foreign domination." For this little adventure, Stark's chosen techniques were personal freedom and secular democracy. And, as Pierpont puts it, "the method of spreading these values was Stark's great specialty: talk." All of which worked, as the Brotherhood of Freedom grew eventually to claim tens of thousands of members.

"Proudest accomplishment" indeed.

The Pierpont essay proceeds from the reissue - by Modern Library and I.B. Taurus - of many of Stark's books. In itself, Pierpont's article is fascinating, and a delightful biographical read, providing us with much about Stark that I suspect many of us never knew. A good read.

Guy's African Family (Complete with Namesake)

2011-04-23T21:37:00.000-04:00

As these African notes begin to wind down (after all, it's now been nearly four months since I left Nairobi and the wonderful friends I got to know throughout Kenya), it seems appropriate to share a few more photographs of my African "family." While I had noted the relationship in a previous post, there had not been time to edit the photographs, and I published just a couple.

Here's what I wrote in that December 31, 2010 post:

Another highlight was a visit to Nyanguru Village, to go to Charles's home and visit with his children and be with his and Jane's family. I had visited Nyanguru Village, near Kisii, earlier in the year because Mr. Charles (who started out as my driver and quickly became one of my best friends in Kenya) had invited me to get to know his family. Go here to read about that visit.

Although I had been to Nyanguru Village before, this visit in December was very special because now I was going to have the opportunity to visit my African namesake. Claire Kwamboka Ombongi Masese, born just a few weeks earlier, is names for Charles's recently deceased sister, and her first name is taken from my last name. I was very honored when Charles and Jane connected to "St. Clair" and chose to name their baby Claire. We're calling her "Angel Claire," which is her daddy's special name for her. It was a wonderful day in Nyanguru Village (and in Mr. Guy's heart) when we went to see Claire and all of Charles's wonderful family.

Now I have the photographs of that family gathering, at Charles and Jane's house on December 22, 2010. You can view them here.

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (6): Leaving Tanzania

2011-04-16T19:39:00.002-04:00

[Despite the confusing title, I'm not back in Africa. Just continuing to posts stories and photos that are still with me, stuff I want to share.]

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There comes the time....

The Tanzania/Ngorongoro Conservation Area part of our safari was a real mix. While the great pleasures had to include a few awkward and tense moments - due to differences of opinion between me as the leader of the group and the third-party driver engaged to work for us - the pleasures of the journey made us very reluctant to leave. We could have had another couple of days at the Ngorongoro Crater.

As we left, we found ourselves speaking most about the views, for as you can see from the photos (at Ngorongoro Crater (6) - Leaving Tanzania), the countryside truly is worth seeing, and worth remembering. I continue to be so impressed with the natural beauty of Africa, and while my focus during the year I was in Africa necessarily (and by choice) was on Kenya, even I will admit that the beauty of the scenery in the Ngorongoro Crater and as we drove back to Kenya was impressive.

The roads.... Well, I've already said enough about travelling in Tanzania, and while there are some sections of paved roads, we just try to overlook (and forget about) the rest. We did have fun stopping along the way, and as we made our egress and re-entered Kenya, of course, there were happy and light-hearted moments. We were a very happy safari group when we pulled into our guest house in Nairobi eight hours after we had left Ngorongoro. We were happy to be home.

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (5) - Hippo Pool & Relaxing

2011-04-10T11:53:00.001-04:00

[Despite the confusing title, I'm not back in Africa. Just continuing to posts stories and photos that are still with me, stuff I want to share.]

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There comes a time on every safari, I suppose, when just being together has gone on long enough. While our group was a pretty light-hearted and carefree bunch, it wasn't until we were in the middle of the game drive on the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater that this high-spirited group "broke loose."

As it turns out, conservancy management has built a place to stop at the hippo pool, sort of in the center of the crater's floor, providing a delightful opportunity and place to just enjoy the scenery. And get a good look at the hippos with the birds riding along on top of them, even when they are in the water.

So even though we had the opportunity to get out of the vehicle (forbidden on most game drives except when there are special places, as here), we did not, of course, venture around to the other side of the pool or get too close to the hippos. You hear all kinds of tales about the "most dangerous" animals when you're wandering about in Africa, and, yes, hippos are on the list (the most dangerous, according to some accounts). That seems to be because when the animals are submerged, they tend to be very still, and the ladies of the villages come to the water to wash clothes and, without realizing it, stop out onto a hippo or otherwise step into the animal's territory, provoking the hippo to take immediate action which always results in the death of the human being.

Whether that gory assertion has any basis in reality or not, we were not about to find out. So we stayed on the near side of the hippo pool, enjoying the animals from a distance and taking our photos (which you can see at Ngorongoro Crater (5) - Hippo Pool). In fact, we stayed for quite a while, and before we knew it the silliness had taken over and we were having fun, interrupted only by the visit of an apparently fearless (and stunningly beautiful) bird that decided to hang around our Range Rover and enjoy our company. A delightful relaxing interval as we enjoyed the crater floor.

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (4) - Birds on the Game Drive

2011-04-06T13:20:00.001-04:00

[Despite the confusing title, I'm not back in Africa. Just continuing to posts stories and photos that are still with me, stuff I want to share.]

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As we drove about on the crater floor, I was very surprised to see so many birds. Not just the usual flocks flying about, but a great many that seemed oddly out-of-place. For example, we had experienced the famous flamingos at Lake Nakuru National Park, where there are so many that the water sometimes seems pink with the hundreds of thousands of flamingos feeding on the water and flying about (previously reported on here ). There were quite a few of the flamingos flying about in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area as well, and like at Lake Nakuru, the flamingos were joined by the pelicans, looking very proud of themselves for being part of the bird picture at the Ngorongoro Crater.

There were other birds, in profusion, and it's at times like this that I'm sorry I'm not a birder. I don't know why, but for some reason I was never much exposed to the study of birds (and I've always been a little in awe of my European friends - particularly people in the U.K. - who are so good about taking their children on long walks across the countryside to teach them about all the birds they see). It would have been nice to have had a little more background in the subject, and as it turned out, most of my safari companions were in pretty much the same situation. Nevertheless, even though we often didn't know what we were looking at, we appreciated the beauty of these wonderful creatures, and seeing them so free in the Ngorongoro Crater made us very happy. We had fun taking photos of some of them, which can be seen at Ngorongoro Crater (4) - The Birds.

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (3) - Game Drive Photos

2011-04-02T15:51:00.003-04:00

[Despite the confusing title, I'm not back in Africa. Just continuing to posts stories and photos that are still with me, stuff I want to share.]

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Just can't seem to let go of the Africa memories, and as I look back at some of the pleasures of the last safari, my thoughts keep returning to the idea of going back to my beloved Kenya. European friends are thinking about joining Andrew and me for a migration safari in July 2012, so I had better get all the Ngorongoro memories locked in place, as I probably won't be returning to Tanzania again.

The descent on to the crater floor was an exceptional experience. As I think I've mentioned, staying at the Sopa Lodge has its own special charms, one of which is a separate roadway down from the rim of the crater, eliminating the need to drive around the rim to get to one of the other descending roadways. And the great joy of the descent is the amazing collection of views of the crater, and, as you get closer, the amazing collection of animals, seemingly just all over the place. And among the first animals we saw were the zebras. There were so many of them that I began to think we were on another migration trip

But all the animals we've grown accustomed to seeing in other conservation areas are not present in the Ngorongoro Crater. For some reason there are no giraffes in there, and apparently no one's ever been able to figure out why. There is - not surprisingly - a great deal of speculation, and the most popular theory seems to be that the steep climb up and down the crater walls is too difficult for the giraffes on their spindly legs. Perhaps. But that wouldn't explain why there are no impala, which can be found in just about all the other parks and conservation areas we visited.

We loved seeing the warthogs, those funny-looking, shy animals that can really move fast when they sense there are humans about. On the other hand, at the Bomas of Kenya tourist attraction near Nairobi, we were equally surprised to see some of these odd animals mingling around amongst all the visitors and staff, apparently not at all uncomfortable around people. So I can't make any definitive statements about warthogs and their connections with human beings but I do know that on a game drive - in any of the places I visited - when our vehicle got even in sight, the warthogs took off running!

Many lions are spread out all over the crater floor, and spotted hyena seem to be everywhere, as our photos show (at Ngorongoro Crater (3) - The Animals). We were even able to catch sight of some of the hyenas enjoying the last bites of a kill (they don't kill any prey themselves, I understand - just come in and take over after the successful predators have sated their hunger and moved away). And here, for the first time, we were able to see cheetah, and we were very impressed with one fellow who was just sitting there looking around, enjoying the beauty of the place like we were (Okay. Perhaps he was looking for where he might find his supper a few hours later).

There were a number of hippos moving about on the crater floor, and one we spotted was pretty impressive. We were able to drive close enough to get to observe him and his habits pretty well, and he paid no attention to us in our van. He just kept feeding on the grass, and every once in a while he would walk about a bit, so all in all our experiences with the animals on our game drive were successful, and we came away feeling good about what we had been able to see.

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (2)

2011-03-21T22:10:00.001-04:00

[Despite the confusing title, I'm not back in Africa. Just continuing to posts stories and photos that are still with me, stuff I want to share.]

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Not much need for commentary here, so the next few posts will be just entry points to the photographs, collected on the Picasa site. These are photographs made during our stay at the Sopa Lodge at Ngorongoro Crater. As I mentioned before, just about one of the best, so photos in the Ngorongoro Crater Sopa Lodge album capture some of what we experienced.

Invitation to Information Session: Columbia University's New M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy

2011-03-11T13:41:00.001-05:00

A recent SMR post described Columbia University's new Master of Science in Information and Knowledge Strategy, designed to teach knowledge management (KM), knowledge services, and knowledge strategy development skills to knowledge workers.

On Thursday, March 24, interested professionals in the New York metropolitan area (or who might be visiting in New York) are invited to learn more about the program at an information session at Columbia. The meeting is at the Columbia University Faculty House, beginning at 6.30 pm. To RSVP, click here and click on the RSVP button.

The particular goal of Columbia's new M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy is to teach necessary skills for professionals in any industry where the need to create and leverage information and knowledge is critical for leadership and organizational effectiveness. The program is appropriate for professionals with a variety of backgrounds:

§ Mid-career information professionals who recognize and are drawn to new challenges in the information and knowledge economy and who want to position themselves to seize strategic opportunities
§ Career changers who recognize the growing opportunities in the emerging knowledge-based economy and want to become strategic knowledge specialists in business, nonprofit, healthcare, legal, or governmental organizations
§ Individuals who may have considered pursuing an MBA degree, but prefer to study information and knowledge strategy issues not addressed in a traditional graduate business program.

The program requires a high level of critical and analytical thinking, as well as organizational and writing skills. It is especially appropriate for individuals who enjoy problem-solving and are enthusiastic about the strategic potential of social media and networking applications in the workplace.

Come join Columbia's Information and Knowledge Strategy team on Thursday, March 24, at 6.30 pm. We look forward to seeing you and telling you more about the program.

- Guy St. Clair

Back to Africa: Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania (1)

2011-03-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

Don't panic. No, Guy has not returned to Africa (although he will one day, hopefully before too long).

But my friends keep teasing me about all my Africa stories and photos (yes, the gang on the December FOG safari probably have enough stories and photos to last for the next, oh, 17 years or so!). So as I review some of what I've shared, I realize that there is still plenty to say.

And it's time now to get back into the routine with the personal blog (been too busy with other stuff recently). And while I'm working hard to keep the entries shorter than in the past, and the photo albums of manageable size, there'll be some more from the Africa experience.

Will try to intersperse some of Mr. Guy's other thoughts too, as I like to do from time to time. Don't want you to get bored!

But back to Africa....

Thanks to Friend Nerisa, I realize I've not said much about some of our favorite adventures, like our time in Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. We had a little reference to that particular safari in the Flat Stanley stories, and the post for New Year's Day included a couple of photos but, well, nothing special (and that was all about Flat Stanley anyway).

Let's fix that.

And, yes, we all fell into the photographing mode. Everywhere we turned we were taking picture after picture after picture (even as we left our lodge at Amboseli and crossed the border into Tanzania). Fortunately for the rest of the group, we had Andrew with us, and as he was very willing so share his skills in photography, we came away with some nice memory-joggers, as you can see here in the first of the Ngorongoro Crater albums.

How to describe the Ngorongoro Crater? It's just east of the more famous Serengeti, and it's fairly inaccessible. You can drive (as we did) but it's a long trip, even from Amboseli National Park, where we were. And even longer from Nairobi, which made us pleased that we broke the journey by going to Amboseli along the way (well worth it, as you might have read in the Flat Stanley story about Amboseli - there'll be more about Amboseli and the park's elephants later).

The climb up the crater rim is pretty difficult - I would guess it would even be tough for more modern equipment, putting aside the memory of the rattle-trap we were in. There is an airstrip somewhere about (we didn't investigate that) and different types of lodging available on the rim (including two or three very elegant lodges).

We chose to stay at the Sopa Lodge, for a couple of reasons. We know the chain, having used Sopa (the word is Masaai for "hello") several times before. And at the Ngorongoro Crater the Sopa has a separate road down onto the floor of the crater, making access and egress much more convenient (not necessarily easier!).

The crater is part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, named after the crater, the world's largest intact volcanic caldera that formed when the volcano collapsed. You get to Ngorongoro from Arusha, and the road is mostly paved until you get to the part where you start to climb the rim (you need a four-wheel, at least).

The crater floor is some 260 sq. km. (I figure that's about 161 sq. miles), and once you've climbed to the top of the rim (which is how you enter the area - you don't go to the lodges from the outside of the rim), it is almost impossible to speak or write about what you're seeing. OK, perhaps the photographs give an idea, but the distances, the height (the rim is some 600 m - about 2,000 ft), the foliage.... Well, it all gets to be a bit much sometimes, doesn't it?

New Graduate Program in Information and Knowledge Strategy

2011-02-21T17:53:00.002-05:00

Let's take a short break from the Kenya stories.

Allow me to report on a new development in the KM/knowledge services field.

Colleagues and friends know that corporate knowledge strategy and strengthening the connection between knowledge strategy and the organization's business strategy are high on my list of important topics. So I'm delighted to share the news that Columbia University has announced a new graduate degree in this area, the M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy.

Our company - SMR - has been involved in this work, and Columbia's School of Continuing Education has just published its announcement about the program. And on a personal basis, I'm particularly honored to have been invited to teach two courses in the program, Principles of Management and Leadership in the Knowledge Domain and Entrepreneurial Knowledge Services.

The program is important for a number of reasons. For one thing, this is the first time this subject has been addressed at the graduate academic level. There are many programs in KM, both graduate and in some cases at the undergraduate level (I've identified more than 40 KM programs, including quite a few in other countries). There are also many well-structured i-school programs. For people who are interested in formal education having to do with the knowledge strategy/management connection, though, I don't know of any other graduate program. So the new Columbia University program offers a very special - and unique - opportunity.

At the same time, Columbia's new M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy clearly demonstrates an innovative, forward-looking frame of reference for the university. This kind of initiative, recognizing the role that information management, knowledge management, and strategic learning play in organizations, is unusual in knowledge-related disciplines, and it is good to see this program being offered. As enterprise leaders seek to identify and implement the best opportunities for knowledge development and knowledge sharing for their employees (what we in the business like to call "KD/KS"), they are learning that they must do so not only for current organizational effectiveness but for future success. Columbia's program is a major step forward and is going to be extremely valuable for helping managers understand how to deal with corporate knowledge and managing knowledge services in the future.

The full description for the M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy makes it clear that this is a subject whose time has come:

"The most critical challenge facing organizations today is managing the analysis, evaluation, and dissemination of data, information, and knowledge for strategic decision making. Columbia University's new Master of Science in Information and Knowledge Strategy program trains students to develop the leadership skills needed to address this challenge.

"The program teaches students to plan, design, and evaluate initiatives in knowledge and information across a wide spectrum of global environments, including corporations, government, educational, and nonprofit institutions. Students also develop a critical insight into the legal, social, and cultural factors that influence an organization's ability to leverage information, and learn to analyze, manage, and solve problems that impact process, human resources, and technology."

Columbia's new M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy is a sixteen month integrated program taught in a hybrid in-class and online format, framed by three short residencies on the Columbia University campus in New York City. Particularly attractive for mid-career individuals looking for new challenges, the program is ideal for people who want to expand or extend their current workplace role, and for current (or future) entrepreneurs who recognize the opportunities to create new venture in the knowledge domain.

I'm looking forward to this. Being part of Columbia's new M.S. in Information and Knowledge Strategy program promises to be very exciting indeed.