Does “Instant Access to Everything” Cause Polarization of Opinions?

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, July 27th at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

Does “Instant Access to Everything” Cause Polarization of Opinions?

I’ve often heard the comment that the Internet exposes people of all types to more diverse opinions, with more facts and background, than ever before, that this is inherently good for discourse, and good for the generation of better ultimate decisions – whether in terms of political process or other decisions. Phrase in another way, this is “wisdom of the crowds” at global scale. On a gut level, this makes sense. More people and opinions ought to create a more balanced view, and although there will be some with extreme opinions, it is generally thought that the wisdom of the crowd will corrall them in workable fashion.

The Boston Globe ran an article this week titled “How Facts Backfire” (listed in the reading links below as well) that really got me thinking. The article pointed to work done at the University of Michigan (the published paper is also linked below for reference) that indicated a tendency for people to take more extreme positions in the face of corrective facts. This seems to fly in the face of the basis of an informed electorate providing the best case for a reasoned choice, and seems to call in to question the idea of wisdom of the crowds.

From a different perspective, the explosion of people posting raw information, sometimes carefully edited or not fact-checked, on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and many other social media systems, has created the appearance of a deluge of (maybe) factual information that is so vast we have no hope of ever understanding it all. The politicized, highly public debate about Shirley Shirrod’s at-first edited words, and then the publication of the full video, provide one view in to how our society handles the new hyper-speed, influence-driven environment in which we now find ourselves living. I’ve included a link to one blog post about this incident, in particular because it has both versions of the now-infamous speech on one page. You can find plenty more with a few clicks if you’d like!

The indexing of the web has generated an apparent global fact overload, available in seconds from a simple search engine query. Does this fact overload trigger the polarization reflex revealed int he University of Michigan study? Does it lead to moderation? How can our propensity for instant gratification, and lessened chance of correcting factual mistakes, lead us to the land of better, more informed discourse, given both what we have seen to date and this new research?

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Group Polarization (Wikipedia)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_polarization

How Facts Backfire: Researchers discover a surprising threat to democracy: our brains  (The Boston Globe)
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/

When Corrections Fail: The persistence of political misperceptions (University of Michigan)
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bnyhan/nyhan-reifler.pdf

Political polarization in news indicates marketing strategy (Chris Leal – The Daily Toreador)
http://www.dailytoreador.com/opinions/leal-political-polarization-in-news-indicates-marketing-strategy-1.2275444

How a Polarized Media Perpetuates a Divided America (TheLoop21.com)
http://www.theloop21.com/news/truth-media-how-polarized-media-perpetuates-divided-america

Turning around Polarized Mindsets in Workplace Mediations (Mediate.com)
http://www.mediate.com/articles/workplace.cfm

NAACP Releases Video of Shirley Shirrod Speech (blog post comparing blogger-edited excerpt initially posted with the full speech
http://www.moonhowlings.net/index.php/2010/07/21/naacp-release-video-of-shirley-shirrods-speech/

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

2010-07-19 Added reference link to blog post by returning Second Life CEO Philip Linden “Update on Strategy”

Virtual World Success and Failure Factors – Past, Present and Future

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, July 20th at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

Virtual World Success and Failure Factors – Past, Present and Future

Virtual worlds grabbed the attention of marketers, companies and educational institutions several years ago, in no small part driven by the fast growth of Second Life™ and offerings for younger children such as Disney’s Club Penguin and many others. Some predicted that virtual worlds would “replace the 2D web.” Over the course of several years many competitors appeared on the marketplace. Today it is far less clear whether this evolutionary replacement will occur in the mid-term, if ever.

In this discussion we will analyze three phases of virtual world development, using the Second Life environment as a model for discussion (since it is the one that most participants in this group know the best).

We will look at Second Life’s initial strong growth phase, discussing which factors seem to have driven and limited growth even during that fast adoption period.

A second phase appeared, in which more targeted uses of virtual worlds appeared, although also through this period usage growth appeared to have stalled, and in many ways retrenched (from public data, it would appear that concurrency has fallen to levels roughly comparable to two years ago after a peak in early 2009). Although on a typical day about 10,000 new registrations are logged, only about 2% of these registrations result in active users (from data presented in a public forum around the launch of Viewer 2).

The third phase has yet to unfold, as we go forward to some form of global financial recovery (with or without jobs, a related but separate topic). Will this third phase look like continued decline for virtual world use, or growth, and what drivers will determine its shape?

We will discuss the corporate model, technical, community, marketing and external cultural and business/financial drivers for the growth or lack of growth through these phases. Is there a path that would result in strong future growth for virtual world technologies, has the market splintered in a fashion that reflects strong but less visible growth, and under what conditions would a system such as Second Life return to strong growth, or has it reached its ultimate size based on the number of people who are interested in its philosophy and concept base? Will virtual world concepts become dramatically widespread, but in some other form than a single-vendor connected system? Are there drivers that indicate that the concepts must evolve to be of interest to a dramatically larger audience?

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

BizEd Business Success and Failure 1
http://www.bized.co.uk/educators/level2/busactivity/lesson/success1.htm

Most Business-Launched Virtual Worlds Fail, Gartner Says
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/virtualworlds/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207800625

Club Penguin Misses Targets, Gives Disney a Half-Price Deal
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/business/media/13penguin.html

Tateru Nino’s Second Life Statistical Charts pages
http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/sl-statistical-charts/ and
http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/sl-statistical-charts-testing/

Update on Strategy – post by returning CEO of Linden Lab Philip Linden (Rosedale)
http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2010/07/16/update-on-strategy-and-call-for-in-world-meeting

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

July 6, 2010 1:54pm Added “The Neurotic Organization: Diagnosing and Changing Counterproductive Styles of Management” to the reference links section. Thanks to John Jainschigg for pointing out this title.

Can an Organization have a Personality Disorder?

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, July 6 at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

Can an Organization have a Personality Disorder?

Organizations talk about internal culture and market it as a selling point, both to customers and to potential staff. organizational culture reflects a concept of shared personality, often described in flashy, positive terms.

If organizations have an organization-level personality, can organizations (collection of many people) have collective personality disorders? Do organizational personality disorders map directly to individual personality disorders defined by mental health professionals?

How can organizational personality disorders be resolved? Are such resolutions possible?

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Systems Framework for Personality Psychology
http://www.thepersonalitysystem.org/Systems%20Framework%20in%20Focus/overview.htm

Personality Trait Inferences About Organizations and Organizational Attraction: An organizational-level analysis based on a multi-cultural sample
http://jmo.e-contentmanagement.com/archives/vol/16/issue/1/article/3067/personality-trait-inferences-about-organizations

Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types in Organizations
http://books.google.com/books?id=2dZvY-xF0XoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Your Organization has a Personality
http://www.processor.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/p2850/31p50/31p50.asp

The Importance of Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace
http://www.earthlingcommunication.com/a/leadership/emotional-intelligence-competency-organizations-1.php

The Neurotic Organization: Diagnosing and Changing Counterproductive Styles of Management
http://www.amazon.com/Neurotic-Organization-Diagnosing-Counterproductive-non-Franchise/dp/0875896065

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

Personal Stress Management in a Chaotic World

Please join our global discussion group every Tuesday at 12pm U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Week’s Topic

Personal Stress Management in a Chaotic World

It goes without saying that today’s world events, financial and work situation, and lifestyle can create substantial stress. There are plenty of “you should just tell yourself to feel better” web sites and books, but this sort of advice is often of limited value in the real world. What stress sources are significant to you, and what are effective ways to deal with them? Are there techniques for creating positive results from stress?

What are your best practices for recognizing and handling stressful situations, relationships and events?

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Understanding the Causes of Stress in Your Life
http://www.mindtools.com/stress/ps/IntroPage.htm

How to Reduce and Manage Job and Workplace Stress
http://helpguide.org/mental/work_stress_management.htm

Stress Reduction article on Livestrong.com
http://www.livestrong.com/article/14656-stress-reduction/

Physical and Emotional Signs of a Stress Response
http://www.nationaljewish.org/healthinfo/lifestyle/stress/index.aspx

Managing Emotions in Human Systems (This page is fundamentally a pitch for coaching services, however the content is interesting.)
http://www.soulwork.net/sw_articles_eng/stress.htm

How Can I Get Event Announcements?

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in using text chat only, voice or both, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable audio with your headset or speakers in either case so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

Speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

We meandered through the Boston Museum of Fine Art today, and on the path I noticed a saying on the wall, in a gallery of photographic prints. In a flash, I realized it captures why I do photography, and it’s essence is why I am a coach, how I practice the craft of consulting and one of the key strategies to releasing project teams from obstacles so they can generate better results.

Revealing a subject in a new way is the core of so many things, as the generator of insight, as the trigger to see new approaches to help organizations and individuals to get “unstuck”, as the way to build collaboration and help teams to be more powerful, and often as the key in the lock of an issue that others haven’t yet found a way to open and solve.

Breakthroughs in coaching people and organizations, practicing the craft of consulting and navigating complex projects depend on a knack to take “what everyone knows” and turn it around to look at it from a unique direction. The moment this hidden vision is unlocked, new and sometimes seemingly impossible things become possible.

I think this I’ll put this one up on the wall here too!

The Many Faces of Corporate Announcements – A Case Study

Please join our global discussion group every Tuesday at 12pm U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

New Location! Tuesday, June 15,  we will be on the web using voice and group text chat (yet another platform experiment!)

This Week’s Topic

The Many Faces of Corporate Announcements – A Case Study

Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life™, have announced the release of 30% of the company’s staff, in order to “Generate Efficiencies and Support Investment in New Platforms.” Along with an official press release, there have been interviews with the CEO and numerous blog posts attempting to both divine the future path that the announcement foretells.

Corporate press releases serve many purposes, and this week we will analyze this release and related commentary to explore how to mine such releases for evidence and facts. It is tempting to stick with emotional ”feel good thinking” or “disaster scenario thinking” responses to major corporate announcements, however it is often possible to reveal significant information from announcements by using critical analysis skills.

We will explore the stated and unstated elements of this announcement in case study form, in order to learn techniques for critical analysis of all manner of corporate and organizational announcements.

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

Registration (free – required to participate)

Please register for We Are The Network using the form below. Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email that includes the URL and Meeting Key you will need to attend the session, as well as a reminder email. Please contact me if you have questions or need any help with registration.
Note: If your RSS reader does not display the registration form below, please open the blog post using your web browser.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Linden Lab Restructures to Generate Efficiencies and Support Investment in New Platforms (PR Newswire)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/linden-lab-restructures-to-generate-efficiencies-and-support-investment-in-new-platforms-95982564.html

Linden Lab Lays Off 30% of Staff (TechCrunch)
http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/09/linden-labs-lays-off-30-percent-of-staff/

A Restructuring for Linden Lab (Second Life Blog)
http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/features/blog/2010/06/09/a-restructuring-for-linden-lab

Second Life CEO Looks to Future, After Massive Layoffs (Computerworld blog post)
http://blogs.computerworld.com/16303/second_life_layoffs

M Linden Sends EMail on Linden Layoffs (Email from Mark Kingdon)
http://danielvoyagerblog.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/m-linden-sends-email-on-linden-layoffs/

The Date may be 6-9, but a lot of people are taking it… (Crap Mariner, Second Life avatar)
http://firstlife.isfullofcrap.com/2010/06/the_date_may_be_6-9_but_in_the.html

Second Life Statistical Charts (Tateru Nino’s blog)
http://dwellonit.taterunino.net/sl-statistical-charts/

The Virtual Whirl: The Bottom Line
http://www.massively.com/2010/06/12/the-virtual-whirl-the-bottom-line/

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice only, using text chat only, or both, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable audio with your headset or speakers in either case so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

Speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

What is the Impact of Computers Making Discoveries?

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, June 8 at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

What is the Impact of Computers Making Discoveries?

Science fiction abounds with stories of machines that are more intelligent, faster and understand things that humans do not yet understand. What if computing technology gets to the point where computers can figure things out, in essence making new discoveries, that we do not yet understand? How will this change society, our place in the world, and our understanding of sentience?

Recent results created by a system nicknamed the “Eureka Machine,” and a few others seem to have potentially put us on the path to this future. This system, with no programming to understand physics per-se, was fed movement data from two connected pendulums, and in a day returned the classic Netwonian formula for the laws of motion as “the one thing in common from all the movements it observed.” The system is now being used to explore other areas of science, and has already generated results that, while mathematically correct, are not yet understood by the scientists involved.

Another system nicknamed Adam is credited with completing the entire discovery process, including creating hypotheses and exploring them, on it’s own, for the first time.

While these are only early successes, those involved believe that they represent only the beginning of what these sorts of systems will ultimately be able to do. Where does this path lead?

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Eureka Machine puts Scientists in the Shade by Working Out Laws of Nature
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/apr/02/eureka-laws-nature-artificial-intelligence-ai

Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory
http://ccsl.mae.cornell.edu/front

Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All By Itself (Wired Magazine)
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/robotscientist/

Center for Computational Learning Systems at Columbia University
http://www.ccls.columbia.edu/

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner

The Agile software development movement and the realization that Agile techniques work in non-software environments have led to practitioner discussions asking “Are we Agile if…?”, or the Agile-but counterpoint “We’re Agile, but we don’t…”

Of late, many have repeated the mantra that Agile is a mindset, not just a set of cookie-cutter elements to be applied unilaterally. These elements need to be tailored to fit the organization based on it’s stage of development and environmental factors in order to create positive results.

It seems to me that deciding an organization’s level of agility based on adherence to a prescribed practice and ceremony list is not an evaluation process that fits with the key concepts of Agile itself!

The first element of the Agile Manifesto is “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” Here is my approach, focusing on individuals and interactions, for answering the question “Are we Agile if…?”

* If how we interact and how we make progress as an organization has improved, and repeated communication and process enhancements generate better results over time, then we are agile.

* If we regularly evaluate our process and results throughout and after projects, figure out what worked well and how it could be improved, and incorporate those improvements to our processes, then we are agile.

* If the people who need and will use the output of our work get the opportunity to use completed functioning portions of it with their own hands, as it is being built, on a regular basis, and feedback is taken openly to improve, re-prioritize and improve the end product, then we are agile.

* If we respond to criticisms, complaints or objections to the current design of a product with a sincere attempt to understand the perspective of the commenter, work to extract the value from their concerns, and figure out how to regularly add that value to the product, then we are agile.

* If the prioritization of work is based on perceived value to those who will actually use the product (rather than the people who are building the product), and if they regularly review and re-prioritize the work based on their real-world needs and understanding of the product’s value, then we are agile.

* If the product is built in order of descending value and priority, so that at any point in time halting work would result in the highest value and priority items being complete and ready for use, then we are agile.

* If we recognize that no one can fully know, understand and articulate in detail the highest value output of a project at the beginning, that working with partially complete elements will trigger learning and changes that will improve the value of the resulting product, that change thus is a value creation step, and continue to perform the work in ways that improve our ability to make changes along the path as learning happens, then we are agile.

* If we create ways to measure the value, quality and cost of our process and results, review these metrics on a regular cycle much shorter than the project length, and find ways to improve on a regular basis, then we are agile.

Perhaps the most important measure of the answer to “Are we Agile if…?” lies not with the builders, but with those served…

* If those who need and will use the outcome of the work perceive that they got higher value during and at the end of the process than some time in the past, that the results are useful at the time they are delivered, and that the time investment in the process was a net positive value, then we are agile.

Some may think this an unconventional way to answer “Are we Agile if…?” since it does not focus on evidence of the well-known Agile ceremonies such as retrospectives, daily scrum meetings, particular charts and graphs, code reviews and pair programming, test-driven design, continuous integration and many other artifacts related to Agile. Past all of these details, these simple questions are at the core of the value of Agile, and can be guides to both “What should we focus on next?” and “Is it working?”

It happens that many of the standard Agile practices are good ways to make improvements in one or more of these areas. The practices are a tactic towards a strategy, however, and not necessarily the only path to improvement.

In some cases, an organization is not ready for a particular practice, yet it is ready for a different approach that will create improvement and movement towards being ready. I think that path represents the best of Agile, even if the attendant ceremony does not match “the Agile way” in a textbook sense.

What do you think of this approach to answering the question “Are we Agile if…?”

This quick post is about a question from a project design meeting for a new mobile application. The application will have a gesture-based graphical interface, initially targeted for iPhone and later on for Android and other platforms. At issue is the question of whether use of screen gestures while driving represent a new driver attention risk.

My first thought was “Anything that takes concentration off of the road is an attention risk, similar to texting or holding a phone instead of using a hands-free system.”

A compelling counter-argument in the discussion was that the device would be mounted within easy reach of the operator, in a fixed location, and these are “large gestures” that do not require any screen attention or reading. Doing a gesture on a touch screen device like this is no different in terms of attention for the driver than reaching to turn on windshield wipers or to adjust a radio on the dashboard.

In thinking about this while driving this afternoon, I’ve shifted to agree with the counter-argument, and think that gesture interfaces, as long as they don’t take careful examination or reading of a screen shouldn’t be a new risk.

What do you think about this question? Under what circumstances would using gesture-based commands with a mobile app represent a new driver concentration risk, and under what circumstances are this sort of interaction benign?

How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, June 1 at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

Some discussion topics flow easily. A “hot issue” appears in the news. An offhand mention of a thought-provoking idea.

Once in a while an topic appears that seems important, but is “off the radar” for most of us. Sometimes it’s so much a part of our daily routine that it seems commonplace, yet has the nugget of an interesting area to explore. How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat is one of these topics.

We have become accustomed to communicating in text chat. This new medium is commonplace and seems familiar, yet in some ways is “all new”. Some people have figured out how to be storytellers, people who can engage our imaginations and keep us “hooked” to read as they type, not looking away or multitasking off to the next shiny, interesting browser window.

There is something subtly, yet importantly different about text chat compared to other electronic text forms, such as email, blogs and web pages. Text chat is interactive in a different, faster, and more spontaneous way. People see thoughts appear as they form. The bits of concepts show up as they are typed, rather than after careful editing of some longer form piece. At the same time, text chat feels like the longer form, traditional writing forms.

This week we’ll explore strategies for telling powerful stories in text chat, discuss how stories get rearranged and restructured to be effective in text chat form, and practice techniques for text chat storytelling.

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Ode: How to Tell a Great Story (Seth Godin – for marketers)
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html

Ten Tips for Storytelling Success
http://homeschool-curricula.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_tell_a_great_story

How to Tell a Great Story
http://www.preachingtodaysermons.com/howtotegrst.html

The “Golden Girls” Guide to Telling a Great Story
http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8962-the-golden-girls-guide-to-telling-a-great-story

Great Story Telling: Plot vs Point
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/65634/great_story_telling_plot_vs_point.html

How to Build a Great Screenplay: A Master Class in Storytelling for Film
http://books.google.com/books?id=GLhKwdqICkMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=great+screenwriting

(Added) The Five Basic Stories that can Give Your Speeches Power
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/12/public-speaking-stories-leadership-managing-speeches.html

How Can I Get Event Announcements (choose one or more)?

* Subscribe to EMail alerts at http://joelfoner.com

* Watch http://joelfoner.com or add this feed to your RSS reader

* Follow @JoelFoner on Twitter

* Join the We Are The Network group in Second Life™

* Join the We Are The Network hippoGroup ( this does not take up a group slot – tap the “We Are The Network” sign at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™)

* Follow Joel Foner on Google Buzz (joel dot foner at gmail dot com)

* Join the JoelFoner.com – We Are The Network Fan Page on Facebook

Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner