The CyberCity Initiative:
... CyberCity Mailing List Archive - October 1999.
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Preface
This page contains the archived postings for the CyberCity Mailing List for the month of October, 1999.
The entire CyberCity Mailing List Archive of past postings to the list provides the detailed discussion for the current situation, how it has evolved, and the rationale therefor. Significant postings concerning current status are also highlighted in the archive, as are Selected Current Topic Indexes - to significant topics and their individual postings:
See also: Index of all CyberCity postings
- Indexed by title, author and date, January 1996 to present.
From the Photo Gallery (55 Kb): our City Skyline at Night. (29 Kb).
Or see an Overview of the Photo Gallery (90 Kb), or its Summary of Thumbnail Indexes.
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Other e-mail and contact information may be found below.
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CyberCity Mailing List Archive
... Postings made during the month of October, 1999.
The CyberCity Mailing List
is an open and free newsletter distributed through e-mail by the City of Grande Prairie to anyone who subscribes. It contains the ideas, proposals and discussion of all who are interested in Grande Prairie's CyberCity Initiative (see also Executive Sumary (a two minute read) | Frequently Asked Questions | Suggested Reading Order).
The CyberCity Initiative helps Grande Prairians to learn about and prepare to participate and compete in the Information Age.
Postings are listed most-recent first; oldest are at the bottom.
Postings of 25 October 1999:
Knowledge Management: Big Challenges and Rewards - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: Knowledge Management for Organizations and Individuals.
CIO Magazine [cookies (cookie caution)] has posted an extensive sponsored article "Knowledge Management: Big Challenges and Big Rewards," [cookies (cookie caution)]. The article, which discusses preparing for and implementing a Knowledge Management project, contains case studies and examples from Finnair, Xerox, AT& T, Hewlett-Packard and Metropolitan Life. It is on-line (with a fairly subdued promotional tone) at:
- http://www.cio.com/sponsors/091599_km_1.html
The initial Xerox system was called Eureka. "The Eureka system stemmed from the practice of Xerox service workgroups--typically four to seven technicians with joint accountability for a group of customers--gathering at the end of the day to exchange war stories about repair problems and what they had done to solve them. This informal exchange of information was a valuable adjunct to repair manuals, which were difficult to keep current and complete, given the infinite number of problems that could occur."
"It took us a while to figure out the right incentive to get [the service technicians] to submit their tips," says Dan Holtshouse, director of business strategy knowledge initiatives for Xerox. "What worked was personal recognition. Their name and the name of the validator goes with the suggestion."
"The software "is much more effective than any librarian system, it allows the people working on a project--the folks who intuitively understand which of their colleagues would need or be interested in the knowledge they possess--to share the information quickly and easily."
"[Large quantities of documents in enterprise systems require] highly intelligent searching and categorization functions, and this technology, which previously was available only in proprietary KM systems, is now a part of generic software packages. The building blocks of this new generation of KM systems are categorizing (the ability to read a page and work out what it is about), hyperlinking (the ability to read an article and say "also look at this report"), searching in natural language, profiling (the ability to help a company understand what a user is interested in) and alerting [those who need to know]."
CIO's Knowledge Management Research Center [cookies (cookie caution)] provides links to additional Knowledge Management resources, their list of related articles, etc. It is on- line at:
- http://www.cio.com/forums/knowledge/
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Postings of 18 October 1999:
Beyond Info Technology to Info Literacy - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: Internet Use for Teaching and Learning].
This article follows up several CyberCity articles:
The educational technology journal "From Now On" has posted in September 1999 an article "Beyond IT" by Jamie McKenzie (about) which focuses on the fundamental importance of teaching information literacy in schools. McKenzie, a former teacher and Superintendent of Schools, has also posted "After Wires: The Information-Literate School Community," a link to which is in the "Beyond IT" article.
In the former article, he points out that "it would help school leaders if we had data showing what works and what fails." To that end, the CyberCity index of selected current topics on "Internet Use for Teaching and Learning" may be useful. It contains a number of articles with links to such studies, and is on-line at:
- http://www.city.grande-prairie.ab.ca/ccy_marc.htm#Index_Internet_Schools
In my view there is now adequate evidence that there is at best a scant connection between how well a classroom is wired and how well the students learn. This finding is scarcely more than a tautology to anybody with classroom time. But both it and McKenzie's findings leave begging a discussion of the enormous strategic importance to students, adults and society's future, of learning how to deal with and exploit this tidal wave of information. Such learning surely requires wired classrooms, teachers and students who are comfortable with the technology, and wired homes, libraries, businesses and government agencies (all with competent users). It also requires a sweeping commitment to continuous learning, most of it well outside the classroom.
Let's hear from other CyberCity subscribers on this important issue.
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Grande Prairie Goes Global in the Information Age - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
The Grande Prairie City Manager will be making a presentation in Ottawa the week of 18-21 October at "Technology in Government Week" [cookies (cookie caution)]. It is billed as the world's largest forum focused on managing information and technology to improve government programs and operations.
The presentation is entitled "CyberCity - Grande Prairie Goes Global in the Information Age" [more cookies (cookie caution)].
See also: PowerPoint slides (frames; tables; Java scripts; very heavy graphics; a set of PowerPoint slides from the City Manager's Office - automatically-generated web pages: graphic versions; ~50-525 Kb each; total is about 5 Mb).
See Also: Lac Carling's article "Grande Prairie Goes Global" in its December 1999 issue.
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Postings of 14 October 1999:
How About a 900 Number that Delivers Coke? - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: Information Age - Societal Impacts and Trends].
A news item on the proliferation of services via digital phones may be of interest to CyberCity subscribers. The article, "Why the new wireless devices employ so many different standards," [dozens and dozens of cookies (cookie caution)] is on-line at:
- http://www.herring.com/mag/issue69/news-air.html
What caught my eye, however, was an aside early in the piece that mentioned that coke machines in France have phone numbers on them. Just dial the number from your cellular, and out pops a coke, ... billed to your phone account.
If you are a parent worried about 900 number access by your teenagers, you now have a really good reason to sweat! And how much other merchandise can be charged to your phone account in the time it takes you to say "Where's my cell phone"?
And what kind of "coke" was that, anyhow?
Another article "Coke Drops Heavy Coin Into Marconi Smart Vending" points out that "smart vending will vastly improve inventory management for the company while providing better service and a high-tech buying experience."
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Postings of 11 October 1999:
On-line Community Solutions Project at NYU - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: on- line communities, municipal information projects and electronic villages].
The Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems (ICIS; about) at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University (NYU) has inaugurated the "Community Solutions Project" which is designed "to create an interactive network of community stakeholders involved in the planning, design and construction of civil infrastructure systems. The project website is on-line at:
- http://www.nyu.edu/icis/comm/comm2.html
"ICIS seeks to network with representatives from community groups, public agencies, and industries in order to share information, strategies and solutions to support this goal. We will analyze and summarize current trends in and examples of innovative and effective community involvement. We expect to draw much of our information from the diverse community of stakeholders and turn it around for use by the community in the form of an online resource. The bulk of this work will be done through promoting and fostering an increased dialogue between and among the stakeholders themselves."
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Postings of 7 October 1999:
Two Effective Ideas for Continuous Learning - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: Knowledge Management for Organizations and Individuals and Information Technology and Internet Use for Teaching and Learning].
Two indexes of web resources are now available:
See Also: The related indexes of E-Learning and Self- directed Learning articles and resources.
These indices may be helpful for those looking for concrete steps they can take in pursuit of continuous learning.
As we have mentioned in earlier articles, "Knowledge Management" is really not much about the management of knowledge at all, but rather has more to do with setting the stage for the planned and deliberate creation, sharing, transfer and application of knowledge among our associates. These associates are often employment-related; but the principles apply equally well in families, hobby and leisure associations, individual intellectual pursuits, and otherwise. The idea is that "what we know is everything," and that we can do it much more effectively for everyone if we do it collaboratively. Ten people working together are all much better informed collectively about all their pursuits at the end of a period of time, no matter what any of them might have otherwise done independently over the same time interval. They each have a broader and more comprehensive view that is closer to reality; and if they have paid even a modicum of attention to making it a matter of record, those who follow will be exactly that much better off than otherwise.
The "Learning Organization" idea is a multiplier in all this "brains-on" work. As Doug Englelbart says,* "... collective intelligence, or collective IQ, is a very real thing." And as Barry Sugarman says,* "we are not just learning to do the work better, but we are building the organization's knowledge base and revising its tools, processes, [management, culture] and products, as we work."
Both ideas have a technology component, of course, mainly having to do with the storage and retrieval of the knowledge, and its communication (just enough, just in time) to wherever it is needed at the moment. But there is a much more important cultural component which is primarily based in trust. For millennia, hoarding information has contributed significantly to individual success. Now, of course, sharing is the only mechanism which assures delivery of the right information soon enough.
Fortunately, it works both ways: as we share with others we gain a better understanding and develop a basis on which others are motivated to share with us. As we get better at it, we learn to spot things others are interested in, and send the references to them. As others do the same for us, we soon have a network which has a profound capacity to deliver the right information to the right people at the right times. Of course, organizations which cultivate this sort of culture develop a competitive edge with is hard to beat. And those without it are easily seen to be on the road to some second tier (or worse).
Management's role is mainly to nurture and cultivate a corporate or organizational atmosphere that engenders the underlying trust essential to the development of these two ideas, and to allocate the resources to make them an everyday reality. All individual members of the staff, for their part, need to understand the concepts and the necessity of developing a permanent and continuous learning and sharing mentality (and the peer networking to feed it).
Everybody a learner; everybody a teacher.
All the time, every day, in everything we do.
* - See the "Learning Organization" index for links to articles containing the Engelbart and Sugarman quotations.
See Also: The related index of E- Learning articles and resources.
See Also: The related index of Self- directed Learning articles and resources.
See Also: The article "Learning: The Critical Technology for Today" in the digest of 1 April 1999. It describes learning techniques, how adult learning differs from child learning, how teacher-centered learning differs from learner-centered learning, and the significance of the latter in the Information Age.
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Postings of 4 October 1999:
Community and Government Information Tool Kits - Chet Meek
FROM: Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
[Indexed in Selected Topics: National, State/Provincial and Local on-line initiatives ].
The Library of Michigan provides a tool kit in behalf of Michigan Libraries that contains a book, videos, training materials and software for "developing local, community information for publication on the World Wide Web." The tool kit website is on-line at:
- http://mel.lib.mi.us/toolkit/
Information in the tool kit includes (from the above website):
- A basic overview of community information networks, and a review of successful community information projects,
- Sample vision/mission statements taken from real projects,
- Examples and strategies for forming local partnerships and for fund raising,
- Training modules for identifying content, soliciting content, organizing content, integrating content, converting content into digital form, publishing and maintaining content and archiving web sites,
- Local site hardware and software recommendations,
- A bibliography,
- Complete step-by-step instructions on installing Windows NT and Microsoft Internet Information Server as a Web server environment, and
- Demonstration software: a community calendar and a community discussion forum, with complete step-by-step instructions.
An overview of "Developing and Delivering Government Services on the World Wide Web: Recommended Practices" has been posted by New York State. "We've written these guidelines with a particular audience in mind: the agency team responsible for designing, developing, and managing a Web service. Our approach is based on the experiences of similar teams in New York State who participated in [a test project]. These guidelines directly reflect their experiences and include the practical tools and techniques that were used, tested, and refined during the project." The overview entry page is on-line at:
- http://www.ctg.albany.edu/projects/inettb/recintro.html
-- Chet Meek .. {cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca} .. [direct e-mail]
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Afterword
Mailing list owner: City of Grande Prairie
. The City sponsors this list and its archive to assist with the circulation of the information and debate concerning the CyberCity Initiative. The opinions expressed herein are the opinions of the contributors, and are not necessarily the opinions of the City. The City does not accept any liability or responsibility for the ideas, opinions, proposals or complaints, or any of the content circulated in this list from any source. Moreover, the city does not accept any liability or responsibility for any outcome, including but not limited to those which may be indirect or consequential, or which result in any fashion from any of this list's content from any source.
List of Subscribers: We will follow the usual Internet mailing list convention in making the list of subscribers to this mailing list available to anyone who is also a subscriber to the list. This allows contributors to be familiar with their audience. The list of subscribers is made available, of course, with the proviso that it will not be used for marketing or any other unrelated or unauthorized purpose.
List Moderator: Chet Meek, E-mail: cmeek@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca ... direct e-mail.
City of Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada .. Voice: 780+538- 0443 .. Fax: 780+539-1056
List address: CyberCity@city.grande-prairie.ab.ca
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Return to the Table of Contents for this page. ..... Return to the TOP of this page.
Return to the Selected Current Topic Indexes - to significant topics and their postings.
Return to the Index of all CyberCity postings - by title, author and date, Jan 1996 to date.
Return to the Significant Postings Concerning Current CyberCity Project Status.
Return to the List of Archive Entries by Month (Jan 1996 to date; most-recent first).
Return to the page introducing the CyberCity Mailing List Archive and its associated links.
Return to the page introducing the CyberCity Mailing List and its associated links.
Return to the page introducing the CyberCity Initiative and its associated links.
Return to the CyberCity Suggested Reading Order or Frequently Asked Questions.
Return to the CyberCity Executive Summary (a two-minute overview).
Return to the list of pages highlighting the CyberCity Initiative.
Go to the City Services Directory, or the City Guide and Visitor's Center.
Go to the Mini Departmental Telephone, Mail and E-mail Directory.
Go to the Photo Gallery, its Overview, or its Summary of Thumbnail Indexes.
Go to the Economic Development section - information about our community.