Dadamac's Posterous - reflecting on August September 1, 2010

Looking back at Dadamac's Posterous is remarkably similar to reading my bank statement. Just as my Visa card gives a financial trail of where I was and what I was doing, so Dadamac's Posterous gives pointers to what I was thinking and communicating. It's not a full picture, but it puts some of the dots in place, and then I can join them up in my mind for a wider view.

People

So what do I see as I look back over the archives for August? I see glimpses of what people I know and admire are doing:

• Sabo is back on the scene.

• Don Osborn has published a new book

• Kellie has finished her travels and we can exchange ideas again

• Dick Heller is still making progress with the People's Uni

• John Dada's varied interests  are mainly covered in Nikki's blog but crop up here too
  

• David Pinto is leaving London.

A wider view

As I look at the August topics, and consider what they mean to me. I see that, as usual, my thoughts are on making sense of the changing shape of things–the impact of all those “invisible influences” that keep thudding into our lives. It is as if we live in two parallel realities–the one that "has been" for so long  (the one that is physical and apparently stable and familiar to us) and the one that is “coming into being” (which is still new to us, which is emerging because of the Internet, which is chaotic and rapidly changing, based on information flows and–more importantly–new connections between people, new kinds of of collaborations and relationships).

Not just "Web 2.0" etc

I won't explain or explore those ideas in depth at here now. I'll simply just point out that I  don't just mean “Web 2.0” or “social media” or “e-learning” and suchlike. Perhaps you will recognise exactly what I mean because it is also your own experience. Perhaps I need to illustrate more of what I'm thinking before we can be sure we understand each other. I am cautious of generalisations. Too often they seem to reflect a shared understanding, which is not really there. I prefer the anecdotal, the illustrative, because it is much more solid. It is said that “anyone can improve on a prototype”. I think that's true. Making the first solid manifestation of an idea, a working example, that is really tough. After the prototype it's easy to come along and say what's wrong with it and how it should be done better. Anecdotes are useful in a similar way. They provide a clear focus, a jumping off point for other ideas and new ways forward.

The big story and illustrative themes

Looking back over August I see the usual things that intrigue me. The big story–the ongoing theme in my mind–relates to the emergence of collaboration, new relationships with information, and systemic change. The illustrative themes are  changing perceptions of educational systems and other organisational change.
August 27, 2010 - Learning to Change-Changing to Learn
August 29, 2010 - Pamela McLean - background of a learner
(and emails with Kellie - see "People" above)

There wasn't anything on Dadamac Posterous this month about economics or ecology, though there may be some evidence of those interests via twitter (and much more in my inbox).

The relationship between online communities of interest, and related emerging face-to-face communities is intriguing me at present. However I'm only just experiencing it, reflecting on it, and sometimes discussing it with friends. I haven't written anything so far. I see my connection with #Brixvill is part of this emerging pattern:
August 10, 2010 - #Brixvill - Confluence pop-ups and Safe Smiling Zones
August 26, 2010 - #Brixvill - Confluence pop-ups - the confluence wall
August 26, 2010 - #Brixvill - Confluence pop-ups - Skill Swarm
and of course the Meet-up groups I belong to reflect it too.

Practical issues

Then there are practical issues–relating the “wealth of information” (the 21st-century reality) to the established physical world of “stuff” and the practicalities of paying the bills. What and where is the right interface between 20th century and 21st-century realities? What is the interface between the economic systems related to the" wealth of stuff” and the value generating systems related to the "wealth of information”? Where is our shared ground? Is it to do with “monetising” what we know? I certainly need to do some learning about that–so I've been opening my mind in that direction too, learning from some online gurus and via some face-to-face training from Alasdair Inglis (but nothing written up on any of that yet).

Other posts

• August 7, 2010 - First Thursday August 2010 - The People and Trying Skype Public Chat
• August 8, 2010 - First Thursday August conversations - part 1 - health, Internet, Open Source, children
• August 8, 2010 - First Thursday August conversations - part 2 - How can Individuals Make a Difference?
• August 10, 2010 - Dadamac Digest - July 24th - August 10th
• August 11, 2010 - First Thursday Follow-up and being a Dadamac Volunteer
• August 13, 2010 - A P2P Introduction to Dadamac and its Motivation\
• August 23, 2010 - Re: a community building effort based on 12 questions
• August 29, 2010 - Comment on - Building the Broadband Economy from the Bottom Up
• August 30, 2010 - Evolution of First Thursday
• August 30, 2010 - First Thursday September 2nd

Deadline

Reflecting on the month triggers so many analytical thoughts on things I  have not had time to explore in writing yet. Meanwhile there are practicalities to deal with. As I write this it's time to get ready for the Wednesday online Dadamac UK–Nigeria meeting. (I had hoped to post this last night–for the August 31 deadline–but a pleasant unexpected family phone call pushed it over into today.) My experiments with voice input mean that I am writing this by hand (on Wednesday morning), to publish later (in the evening). There is more that I haven't touched on–but it will carry over into September. End of these reflections. August is over. Time to press “send”.