mart

Speople
Digital generations bring knowledge to life
Human-computer
Interaction:
Impact of Volume 1
Issue 3
electronics JULY 2009
SM
on today’s
youth

Decentr alizing stewardship

Minister’s decision lesson in power of empowerment

From chump to
champ: Helping
underperformers
make quantum
leap
No kidding:
Pavlina Part II: Thinking
Youthful blogger earns
about life from new
five figures
perspective

Game’s changed: Better inventory your personal ‘capitals’

 Once upon
a time
there was
a prince
. . . whose knowledge capabilities were trapped inside his own skin.

Along came a gi f t subscrip t ion

to Smart People Magazine and he was forever powered by kisses.

10 kisses (issues) sold here for $ 50 $ 25 USD

Limited time only

Smart People magazine is a new media publication that will awaken in

your prince the power of knowledge much sought after by employers
worldwide. The power has always been there but the Web has multiplied
it a million times and, unknowingly, your prince is using his smarts
(and those of others) every day – living, learning,
choosing, creating, working.
Help the prince wake up to the power.
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Available in three formats:
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Volume 1
Issue 3
JULY 2009

Cover story
CHOOSING LIVING 4 Decentralized
stewardship
6 From chump 8 If networking flops One hundred parishioners
to champ Know what you need before looking empowered to make
Lucky Alex has a for help online. Otherwise you’ll have personal decisions on
caring supervisor who too many people with too little to spending charity funds.
helps him raise his offer.
game. Four steps to
coaching a personal
9 Housework reduces salaries
Housework reduces the salaries of
quantum leap.
women, regardless of profession. Men
affected too – just not as much.

11 Love is a choice,
not an emotion
Also in this issue This article is about love relationships
Eight norms of readers 3 but it could easily be applied to all
relationships.
The Knowledge Factor 40
KM Six Pack
The second of a
series of six articles LIVING
introduces newly
engaged employees and
managers to the basics 12 Part II: Personal development
of knowledge-based Steve Pavlina completes his two-part series to get you
enterprise. thinking about life from a new perspective.
14 Survival
Scenarios including a subway disaster to business
and personal decisions, creative thinking trumps the
crowd .
15 Brain rules
Your brain is the most sophisticated
information-transfer system on Earth. Yours
is doing it right now!

SMART PEOPLE 1
SMART PEOPLE

LEARNING
18 Human- 20 Digital 22 Obaminoes
computer generation mural
interaction project Elementary
Examining the Investigation into students have
impact on today’s the media-rich, fun learning
children of video networked lives math building
gaming, Web browsing, instant of the digital a mathematical
messaging and more. generation. mural of President
Obama.
21 Baboons and social
networking
Exploration into the matriarchal
society of baboons highlights
Year of Darwin celebration.

24 SmartInnovators
You know the game has changed,
but do you know the new game
is all about you? Inventory your
‘capitals.’
CREATING
28 Smart Dad
News reports a teenager
unable to free a toddler from
a burning vehicle triggers
idea for safety seat release.
29 ‘Wetware’ is
adaptable
Unlike computers, people do not have static
memories. So the challenge is to develop
software that thinks like humans.

WORKING
32 No kidding 34 Create a better place 36 Generalist or specialist?
Teen blogging to work Neither! Winners in a fast changing
for dollars Six steps your boss world are those who
earns five could use to make quickly adapt and
figures the organization take advantage of the
annually the employer of new waves.
and that’s
just from his first
choice.
38 Passionate
enterprise. professionals
Getting to really know a mix and
match network finds one thing in
common – their pros.
2 SMART PEOPLE
 SMART PEOPLE

About Smart People

Following the eight norms of our readers
The editorial policy of Smart People magazine follows the “Eight
Norms of Net Geners” as described by Don Tapscott in his book
Publisher
Grown Up Digital. We include Digital Pioneers and Catching Up
Jerry Ash Digitals.
smart.guy1@smartpeoplemagazine.com This is a new media publication in every sense of the word. It
Managing editor is published online using the interactive channels of Web 2.0 to
Michele Ash enable ‘prosumers’ – people who want to have a hand in shaping the
michele@smartpeoplemagazine.com magazine – to collaborate on content and direction.
Technology by The Eight Norms we use as our guidelines are:
Boris Jaeger
boris.jaeger@smartpeoplemagazine.com Freedom: Net Geners demand the freedom to choose. The more the
Graphic design by
better. The Internet has enabled that right and we eagerly compete in
Associated Professional Services that environment.
designer_aps@verizon.net
Customization: The magazine will continue to evolve as Smart
Social network hosts People representatives host discussion groups in the social networks
Facebook Ning and advocate changes in the magazine.
Daniel Delgado Jerry Ash
Scrutiny: We expect smart people to examine our value and
Linkedin Twitter determine whether our magazine is unique and worth time and
Skip Boettger Jack Ring
John Veitch Alice MacGillivray
money. And, we expect to be continually tested.
MySpace Xing Integrity: To earn your trust, Smart People must deliver quality,
Alan O’Neill Boris Jaeger relevancy and truth by sharing the best of knowledge and
information from the most reliable of sources.
Collaboration: Smart People magazine has been developed in
collaboration with social networkers in an open, online worksite.
Entire contents copyrighted, 2009, by Associated
Professional Services, publisher. All rights are Our prosumers continue to be our ‘board of directors.’
reserved. Contents may not be republished (in print Entertainment: We learn and we do our best when we’re having
or electronically) without permission of the publisher.
fun. Smart People magazine is deliberately quick and lively and full
Opinions expressed are those of the writers and may of meaning, all at once.
not represent the opinion of Associated Professional
Services or Smart People magazine. Speed: No one ever said magazines were speedy. But they’ll say it
Smart People magazine about this one. The magazine may be a periodical, but the flow of
Associated Professional Services conversation is now.
1811 Atrium Drive
Sun City Center, Florida 33573 Innovation: There’s never been anything like Smart People magazine.
Phone: 813.634.4397 We dare to be different because we think differently and we urge
our readers to think differently too. We heed the Eight Norms
because we believe in them.

Tom Davenport David Gurteen Alice MacGillivray Robert Wendover The Smart People Magazine Board of Directors is being carefully and
Information Knowledge Smart People Generational
Technology Management Networkers Studies methodically constructed to assure broad representation of the personal
and professional interests of our audience, ranging from experts to
ordinary smart people. We invite suggestions and assistance. Contact
Jerry Ash: smart.guy1@smartpeoplemagazine.com

EDITORIAL BOARD

SMART PEOPLE 3
COVER STORY

Decentralizing stewardship
Minister’s decision a lesson in the power of empowerment
By Jerry Ash out $100 bills – a total of Then his daughter pitched
$10,000 from his church’s in too. Soon the Shedds had
There is no better way to general funds – to 100 collected $1,000.
understand how the rules parishioners with instructions After weeks of debate,
can change, how people can they were to invest it outside the family donated $800 to a
become engaged in making the church in line with the shelter for abused women and
better decisions, and how goals and objectives of the children.
surprise and discovery can church mission. Then Shedd read a
ignite communities than to “It had to be glorifying newspaper article about 15-
follow the collection plate of to God and it had to benefit year-old Javier Zambrano in
a community church where others,” Bellesi said. Beyond nearby Santa Ana, California,
the pastor chooses to think that, how each spent the who was collecting holiday
differently. money was a personal gifts for children even though
Follow the money in most decision. he didn’t have enough money
churches and you will see it Soon hundreds of people to buy soccer shoes for
travel through the hierarchy: and funds far greater than himself. Shedd gave Javier
the original $10,000 the remaining $200 for soccer
One hundred parishioners got $100 bills were involved. equipment.
with one simple instruction: “It must glorify The results ranged
from small acts
Michael Rodriguez
used the $100 to begin a
God and benefit others.” Otherwise, it was of kindness such donation drive at the Internet
a personal decision. as helping a local consulting company where
family get on he worked. The money raised
from the donor to the finance its feet to large helped a family with funeral
committee where decisions projects such as funding the costs for two daughters who
are made on how it is spent. construction of a church in had died. Gene Shook used
Sometimes spending decisions Asia. the money to buy Bibles and
are influenced by individuals Bill Shedd, one of the study guides to train pastors
or special interest groups parishioners, said, “It was the in Asia. Nine-year-old Alex
who want to support worthy most important $100 I ever Benson sent the money to a
causes or people in need. held in my hands.” To add four-year-old Oregon girl
The administration carries to the pot, Shedd’s 13-year- to help her family with
out the will of the committee old son donated $100 he had expenses for a heart
and, of course, there is an saved from his allowance. transplant.
accounting process and the
members receive a
financial report.
Denny Bellesi,
then minister of the
Coast Hills
Community
Church in
Aliso Viejo,
California,
turned
the process
around. The
clergyman gave
4 SMART PEOPLE

Pastor Bellesi intended
the lesson to be about
stewardship. In business
we would have called
it an experiment in the
decentralization of decision-
making.
By accident, Pastor Bellesi
may have learned a lesson
for himself – that in the era of
information and knowledge,
people like to think for
themselves, and great things
happen when hierarchy gets
out of the way.
The explosion of the
Internet and other forms of
personal communication –
coupled with the highest level
of human intellectual activity
ever – have created a new
order in human enterprise.
It is a phenomenon that
transcends all ages, not just
the young and impetuous.
Patients enter doctors’ offices
these days already having
researched their symptoms.
They make decisions about
their own care based on what
they know, not just what the
doctor tells them.
Shoppers go online not
just to buy, but also to learn
all they can about a product
from every point of view.
They depend much less on
what the salesman advises;
in many cases, the customer
knows more – or better.
The selection of media
is no longer limited to
newspapers or broadcast
journalism, creating an even
freer flow of information and
ideas. Doing business with
the government is as close
as the desktop, allowing
citizens to take charge of their
own affairs by bypassing
intermediaries who have
“government connections.”
The impact of this
dramatic culture change is
both in the marketplace and
the workplace. People like
The knowledge effect is ubiquitous.
Self-direction and decision-making are at the
heart of this cultural change
Pastor Bellesi’s parishioners
not only thrive on the
responsibility of decision-
making, they have come to
expect it. When people go to
work, they are looking for
an environment that will use
their brains as well as brawn.
Some who were schooled
in the command-and-control
management methods of
the past may call it disorder.
Certainly, the open field
attitude of today might
have been anathema in the
Industrial Age, but we are
now in a knowledge economy.
Bright people with fresh
ideas and initiative are just the
fit for enterprises that need
innovation and agility to keep
up with rapidly changing
methods and marketplaces.
Customers are approaching
organizations directly with
their ideas for new products.
They are no longer content just
to consider what’s available.
They want to participate.
So, the knowledge
resource and the knowledge
culture aren’t a problem.
Organizing a knowledge-
friendly environment that
encourages knowledge
sharing and collaboration is.
The new order requires a
new style of leadership and
“followership” that fits the
new kind of enterprise.
COVER STORY
Pioneers on the leading
edge of these phenomena
are too often thought of
– mistakenly – as promoters
of a new fad. Such a reaction
is understandable since this
seemingly sudden focus on
the knowledge phenomenon
follows closely on the heels
of a succession of popular
management fads that have
business leaders and workers
somewhat skeptical of the next
short-lived craze.
But this is not a craze and
it is not temporary. It is real
and it will change the way
we think, live and work in
the foreseeable future. The
champions of KM and SN are
the futurists of our time. They
work between an outdated
past and an uncharted
future that is already upon
us. They approach issues
from the perspective of
their own backgrounds in
management, communication,
human relations, training
and development, education,
strategic analysis, technology,
project management and
academic research.
But the most effective
champion of all is Mother
Nature. The technology may
be the work of humans, but
the effect is nature at work.
Adapted from the introduction to
Next Generation Knowledge
Management written by Jerry
Ash and published by Ark Group,
London. http://www.ikmagazine.
com/bookshop.asp
SMART PEOPLE 5
CHOOSING
From chump to champ
CHOOSING Four steps to coaching a personal quantum leap
By David Benzel
Alex knew Chase had
tremendous potential. As his
manager, Alex was frustrated
watching someone like Chase
wallow in mediocrity when
he should be excelling in the
workplace.
It wasn’t laziness;
Chase always did what was
required. It wasn’t a poor
attitude either. In fact, Chase
often commented on how
much he loved his job. He just
seemed stuck.
So as his manager, Alex
decided to help take Chase’s
performance to the next level.
The question was, what could
he do?
Alex’s dilemma is all too
common in the workplace.
Managers feel a responsibility
and a need to help employees
raise their game.
It’s good for the company,
the employee and usually
the customer wins, too! But
most managers don’t know
David Benzel
6 SMART PEOPLE
how, and threats and coercive
tactics fail to have any lasting
impact. Incentives represent a
much healthier approach, but
the increase in performance
often disappears as the
incentive does.
There is another way! As
a manager or supervisor, you
are in the unique position to
influence people who report
to you.
Unfortunately, most
managers choose to influence
their people by telling them
things, rather than asking
good questions, then giving
great affirmations.
The trick is knowing what
to ask and what to affirm.
Through the following four-
step process, employees will
be transformed from the
inside out – a quantum leap
– and it will be their choice to
go from chump to champ!
1. What is the dream?
Surprisingly, most people
don’t have a clear dream,
and it’s usually because they
haven’t decided what they
want to be, want to do or
want to have. A dream is a
picture of the future we want
for ourselves, so as a manager,
you must ask the tough
questions and help your
people discover the answers.
Ask questions like:
n “If you could be doing
anything you wanted
here, what would it be?”
“Tell me why.”
n “What activities here
give you the strongest
feelings of satisfaction or
importance?” “Why is
that?”
n “If you were guaranteed
success, what would
you dare to dream for
yourself?”
n “What is a dream in your
personal life that your
work here might help you
achieve?”
Have your employee write
down the answers to these
questions and others like
them. Assist him or her in
starting a notebook, and call
this “Step One – Declaring My
Dream.” If you don’t have a
boss, do it yourself!
2. What is the target?
A target is a specific goal
that must be hit in order
to make a dream become
a reality. Dreams that are
not backed by specific goals
will often remain unrealized
visions.
A really good goal refers
to some action that, if done
well enough or often enough,
will result in the dream
turning from fantasy to fact.
Ask questions like – “What
specific target could you aim
for that would take you closer
to your dream?” “How will
you measure your progress?”
Here’s an example:
n Dream – Become the top
sales representative in my
department.
n Improper target
– “Outwork all other sales
reps.” (How will you
measure “outwork”?)
n Proper target – “Make 20
percent more outgoing
phone calls each week to

prospective clients than
the office average from the
week before.”
Have your employee write
down one or two targets that
involve measurable activities
to keep track of progress.
Guide the person to select
targets that require stretching
to reach, but are not out of
reach.
3. What will be imagined?
Images are the language
of the brain. If the sub-
conscious receives those
pictures often enough,
personal behavior
will be modified to fit
the pictures. The sub-
conscious brain is eager
for information, but it does
not judge the information you
send it as good or bad, right or
wrong. It just accepts it, and
assumes you want it.
Ask questions like:
n “When you imagine
hitting your targets and
achieving your dream,
what does it look like in
your mind’s eye?”
n “Describe what you see,
what you hear and what
your success feels like?”
n Make an affirmation
like, “Since I’m familiar
with you and your work,
let me share what I see
regarding your success.”
Then describe what you
see for them.
If you truly believe in a
person’s potential, the images
you share from the theater
of your mind will have the
force of a prophecy and
create a sense of confidence.
Encourage people to play
success scenes in their mind
daily.
4. What is believed?
If a person has a dream,
has taken aim on specific
targets and has practiced
imagining the desired
outcome in advance, there’s
only one thing
that could stand
in the way –
roadblock
messages.
Roadblock
messages are
the self-
limiting beliefs people think
to themselves.
Many of your employees
have solid dreams, lofty
targets and may even enjoy
some moments of mental
rehearsal, but if they hear a
small little voice in their head
saying, “I can’t do that” or
“I’m not good enough to hit
that goal,” chances of success
are slim.
CHOOSING
Make affirmations like:
n “I know you will it the
goal” or, “I believe in you”
or “There’s no stopping
you now!” Make it clear
that you believe how this
is going to end.
n Ask questions like, “What
does the little voice in
your head say about your
chances of success?”
n “What part of this
challenge intimidates you
the most?”
Discover what personal
roadblock messages they
hear and help them replace
those messages with new
messages. Initially you
will coach the four steps in
sequence, but soon realize
that they become integrated
steps. On any given day your
employee’s thoughts will glide
seamlessly from the high
altitude of a dream, down
to the earthly details of the
day’s most immediate target.
Your employee’s life is being
transformed because he or
she sees the world differently.
And because he sees the
world differently . . . it is!
David Benzel is an author and
expert in leadership and creating
peak performance. As the founder
of Winning Ways – www.
davidbenzel.com – his experience
includes six national water-skiing
titles and five records, coach of the
U.S. water-ski team and founder/
coach of an international training
center. David is the author of the
upcoming book, From Chump to
Champ: How Individuals Go
From Good to Great. Contact
David at davebenzel@cs.com.
SMART PEOPLE 7
CHOOSING

If networking flops
Avoid throwing random ingredients into the saucepan
By Liz Lynch that work, most likely they’ll client service and other key
be hungrier than ever. business responsibilities.
Are you heavy on tactics And let’s face it, none
and light on strategy when it A tasteful of us has unlimited time to
comes to networking? You’ll and successful dish network, nor unlimited time
know if you’re feeling at Crafting a successful dishto wait for networking to
all frustrated that the time in the kitchen starts with work.
you’ve put in is
far outweighed by Know what you need before looking for help online.
the meager results
you’ve gotten. Otherwise you’ll have too many people with too
Trouble is, little to offer you in your network.
when we get into
this situation we having a fairly good idea of We want to do the things
think we need to do more and what you want the dish to be, and be in the places that will
we look for solutions in the deciding what it should look give us the greatest likelihood
form of other tactics we might like and taste like in your of meeting the right people.
not have tried yet. mind first. Only then can you But to do this, we need to
But imagine if you took choose the right ingredients focus on the who before the
five random ingredients from to create it. It won’t work the how.
your refrigerator and threw opposite way. You can’t make When you’re compiling
them into a sauté pan. What beef wellington with Caesar your list of key relationships
are the chances you’d have salad ingredients no matter to build for your business,
a finished dish that you’d how skilled in the kitchen you be sure to consider these
actually want to eat? are. different groups:
Then what if you added It’s the same thing with
another ingredient to the pan, n Those with specialized
networking. You need to have
knowledge
and another and another? a good idea of the kind of
Speaking with folks who
Think the end product would help you’re looking for and
can give insight, advice and
get more appetizing? Not who might be able to give you
market intelligence on key
likely. that help before you venture
industry trends, news and
Yet that’s what so out online or in person to
people can help you find
many people do to meet them. Otherwise you’ll
hidden opportunities to
remedy networking have too many people in your
capitalize on.
that isn’t working. network, nice folks as they
Adding more and may be, who can’t give you n Those who actively
more stuff to an the kind of help you need and network
incoherent mess not enough of the people who People who are active on
and getting further can. social networking sites or who
and further away A strategy helps you frequently attend networking
from enjoying a narrow down where to spend events will be valuable not
satisfying, your networking time. That’s only because they understand
yummy, especially important for the concept of networking,
filling entrepreneurs and business but also because they have a
meal. owners who know that every large network to connect you
In fact, minute spent on networking is to and a steady inflow of new
after all time they’re not spending on contacts.

8 SMART PEOPLE
 CHOOSING

n Those who’ve already who you network with doesn’t

achieved
Having role models
who’ve already accomplished
the goals you’ve set for
yourself can be inspirational,
and they can help you
shortcut your road to success
by giving you firsthand advice
on the mistakes to avoid.
n Those with access to
money
You’ll never know
when you might need a
small business loan, private
investment or some other
form of financing for your
business.
Keep in mind that being
deliberate and focused about
give you license to be a jerk
to everyone else. You want
to be friendly and respectful
to everybody you meet and
never burn bridges. Even if
you don’t think someone can
help you, they could be of
great help to someone you
know.
Liz Lynch is founder of the Center for
Networking Excellence and author
of Smart Networking: Attract a
Following in Person and Online
(McGraw-Hill, 2008). She writes,
speaks and consults about seamlessly
integrating social media and
traditional networking to save time
and accelerate results. Visit www.
NetworkingExcellence.com for more
info.

Housework reduces salaries of women, some men

New research by Vanderbilt professor of law and economics Hersch said the most surprising finding was that housework
Joni Hersch found that housework not only reduces the salaries had a negative impact on the salaries of women, regardless of
of women, but also affects some men’s wages. their occupation.
She also found that women’s salaries are negatively Hersch found that 85 percent of the women in the sample
impacted by housework, regardless of profession. were employed in occupations that suffered a housework-wage
For her study, Hersch used time diary data from the penalty, including highly compensated women in managerial
American Time Use Survey, which provided detailed information and professional positions.
on all activities performed over a 24-hour period. In contrast, housework lowered men’s wages in only
In her analysis, Hersch defined housework to include some occupations – management, business, financial
activities like cleaning, cooking, childcare, pet care, house, lawn operations and sales-related occupations. These
and garden maintenance, grocery shopping, and household careers employed only 24 percent of the men in the
management. sample Hersch used.
Hersch found that the total time expended by women on Although housework is
these activities dominated the time spent by men, with the a factor in the gender
bulk of women’s total housework time spent on cleaning and pay gap, only a
cooking. small part of it
Married women completed an average of 97 minutes per is explained by
day on housework and unmarried women spent an average of housework.
67 minutes a day on housework. The full
Men completed an average of 29 minutes per day, study can
regardless of marital status. be found in
Hersch found that each extra hour spent on daily housework an upcoming
reduced average wages by about 24 cents per hour for women issue of the Review
and about 21 cents per hour for men. of Economics of the
Household. You can also find the study at http://tinyurl.com/
ow7yh5.

SMART PEOPLE 9
CHOOSING

Texting
Students prefer it. So the library goes for it!
A recent survey conducted at a university in Indiana confirmed what most college students (and
those who work with college students) probably already know: text messaging is the college
student’s preferred form of communication.
“Indiana’s Ball State University recently surveyed about 300 college students, and found that
text messaging is their favored form of telecommunication, becoming more popular than e-mail,
instant messaging and calling,” wrote Evan Shamoon in a March 29
blog post on “Switched” [switched.com]. “Ninety-four percent of the
students questioned said they send and receive text messages.”
So when Western Illinois University Libraries launched its “Text
Me” service, WIU library faculty and staff were pretty confident the
service would be one that appealed to students. Through Text Me,
when a library user finds a book, journal article or other resource
through the online catalog on the library’s website, he or she can
just click on the words “Text me this call number,” enter the mobile
phone number and service provider and the call number will be sent
to the individual’s mobile phone in the form of a text message.
“The next step for us was to create a way to tell students about
Text Me,” explained Andrea Falcone, virtual services librarian at
University Libraries. “We decided to use our recently formed ‘V-
Team’ (the ‘V’ is for ‘Video’), which is comprised of faculty, staff and student library workers
who are producing videos to promote University Libraries’ services.”
According to Falcone, the team is collaborative in nature, but a lot of the work – including the
writing, editing and camera work - will be the purview of library student workers like Lauren-
Ashley Barnes, a senior graphic communication major from Flossmoor, IL, and Joshua McEuen,
a senior history major from Milton, IL.
The result of the V-Team’s first effort is “Text Me,” a three-and-a-half minute video that uses
an eco-friendly angle and boy-meets-girl-in-the-library story to tell WIU students about the
service and how it works. The video is available for viewing on WIU’s YouTube [youtube.com/
watch?v=2yjlz1zZ1cU] and MySpace (http://tinyurl.com/njoks4) channels.

Why study if college is not an option?

Most young students do not enjoy homework. However, after
being told that good grades will help them get into college and
lead to a better life, most students eventually buckle down and
start studying.
But what if college is not an option? If a student thinks he
or she won’t be able to afford a higher education – if the path
toward college feels closed – he or she may conclude that
studying and homework are a waste of time.
Research by psychologists Mesmin Destin and Daphna
Oyserman from the University of Michigan revealed when
students as young as 11 years of age felt college was an
option, they expected to do better in school and planned on
putting more effort into studying and homework, compared to
students who did not view college as a realistic possibility.
Many students don’t begin receiving financial aid
information until the end of high school but these findings
indicate that may be too late.
The authors say, based on these results, parents and
children from low-income families “should learn about the
financial accessibility of college early, before gaps in student
achievement levels emerge and some fall behind.”

10 SMART PEOPLE
 CHOOSING

Love is a choice‚ not an emotion

This article is about love relationships, but it could just as easily be applied
to all relationships, even those who don’t have love going for them.
By Deidre Logan expended considerable effort
to make sure that it did
Like most people, I have often happen.
heard the all-too-common Love is the by-product of
refrains, “you can’t help who mental and physical time and
you love,” “it just happened,” effort deliberately put forth to
or “one thing led to another.” create and continue feelings of
Most often, I hear this infatuation and romance.
from women who are We’ve all seen the
attempting to justify their ill- situations where people have
advised involvement in some gotten involved in emotional
situation that has come back and/or physical intimacies
to bite them in the behind. with someone they were “just
Ladies, I’m about to friends” with.
set you free! None of these The usual protests go
assessments is accurate. something like “I don’t know
The truth is – you how it happened,” “I never
absolutely, unequivocally can intended for it to happen” or
help who you love – it did not “I couldn’t help myself.”
just happen and one thing did The facts are that these
not lead to another. relationships never just
You either made it happen happen.
or you allowed it to happen. They occur after days,
Now, you’re free because weeks and months of finding
either way, the situation is in big and small ways to
your control. For purposes perpetuate the ecstasy of illicit
of this entry, however, I will attraction. In short, true love is a
focus on the ‘who you love’ That fact alone begs the series of choices that you get
issue as it concerns unhealthy question: Is it really love emotional about.
romantic love. you’ve created? You might It is not merely an
Contrary to popular think it is. Your partner may emotion or a feeling that you
opinion, love is not accidental, even agree. just helplessly fall into like
The truth is
a hole in the sidewalk. True
Love is not a hole in the sidewalk you’ve created
love is deliberate.
a fantasy
waiting for you to blindly fall into it. that can only It lasts, not because
of how you feel about
survive in the
each other, but because of
incidental, or happenstance. bubble of the manipulated
your dedication to your
It isn’t random, arbitrary or realities you’ve invented.
commitment to each other.
evolutionary. That’s why the magic dies
It happens by the sheer under the stresses and strains
Deidre Logan is a romance blogger
force of two independent wills of real life. No longer able to who gives advice to the lovelorn
focused in the same direction. shield your “love” from the from Chicago, IL, US.
It happens because the two side effects and consequences
people involved wanted it of real life, you usually soon
to happen, and have usually find that your “love” fades.

SMART PEOPLE 11
LIVING

Part II: The medium vs. the message

LIVING Personal development for smart people
One of the most successful personal development bloggers
on the Internet completes his two-part series designed to get you thinking
about your life from a new perspective.
By Steve Pavlina is essentially your purpose, teamwork or honesty to your
which I’ve addressed many workplace?
The feeling of being driven times in various blog entries You may find it helpful to
comes from the message of (see the Purpose category on define yourself in terms of a
your work, not the medium. the blog for details). But here’s metaphor. Are you a rock? An
When you wake up each yet another way to discover eagle? A storm?
morning, how do think your message: If you have trouble
about your work? Do you Think about what you bring figuring this out for yourself,
say to yourself, “Today I’m to your job or career (or even to ask people you know for their
going to write something” any random task or project) that’s opinions. (You may want to
(the medium)? Or are you different from how the average have them read this article
thinking, “Today I’m going to person would do it. What’s first, so they know what the
improve the human condition different about your approach to heck you’re talking about.)
in some small way” (the your work vs. how other people Often other people can see
message)? would do the same job? us more clearly than we see
Which perspective do you For example, when ourselves.
think is more intrinsically I primarily worked as a
motivating? computer programmer, I was Embracing your message
Certainly both the extremely aggressive about Once you develop an
message and the medium are improving my skills, and I’d understanding of your
each an important part of your enthusiastically share what I own message (and your
career, but with the rapid pace learned with other people. understanding will surely
of technological advancement, In building my games evolve over time), you can
your medium is likely to be business, I did the same begin to express that message
far less permanent than your thing. You can put me in more consciously.
message. virtually any job, and I’ll bring You can redefine your
Notice that medium- these same qualities to it. career in terms of that
based work is highly subject I’ll aggressively strive to get message. Believe me – this is
to automation. A salesperson better and better, and I’ll share likely to feel very awkward
is replaced by a Web site. A with others what I learn along at first. But over time if you
secretary is replaced by a the way. That’s the message can overcome the social
PDA. A PR firm is replaced that’s uniquely me. conditioning that tries to
by a blog. But automating the Imagine yourself working pigeonhole you into a single
message that’s provided by at different jobs and in medium instead of embracing
a conscious human being, different fields. your message, I think you’ll
now that’s a lot tougher. What qualities do you find it a much more fulfilling
How would you automate bring to your work that are way to think about your
the message of personal uniquely you? Do you spread career.
development, for example? good humor, harmony or In school, we mostly
passion? Do you provide learn a medium. In high
Finding your message analytic depth, intuitive school, I learned the medium
How do you identify insight or a rational outlook? of writing. In college, I
your message? Your message Do you bring loyalty, learned the medium of

12 SMART PEOPLE

computer programming. In
Toastmasters, I learned the
medium of speaking. And
from other bloggers I learned
the medium of blogging.
But the message that I
bring to these multi-media
isn’t something I learned in
school.
The message is something
that’s been a part of me since
childhood, although my
awareness of it has certainly
increased as I’ve grown up.
When I switched careers
from game publishing
to working in personal
development, it was more
than just a job change.
It was a shift from
medium-based thinking to
message-based thinking.
Writing and speaking and
blogging are better media for
my message than developing
computer games. And as
technology continues to
evolve, I have the flexibility to
embrace any new media that
arise.
The media are just empty
containers. The message is
what fills those containers.
Once I began defining my
career in terms of the message
instead of the medium, I felt
much more in tune with my
work.
Sometimes I tell people
I’m a writer or a blogger or
a speaker – all of those are
true for now. But internally
I feel that any one of those
containers is too small a
description of the real work I
do.
Have you ever felt the
same way . . . that your job
title is too small for you?
How do you feel when you
say, “I’m a _____” (fill in
your current job title)? Say it
right now, and notice how it
LIVING
makes you feel. Does it really overlaps this one, you
describe the totality of the may enjoy reading the
work you do? blog post: End Goals vs.
How could you give Means Goals.
yourself a more expansive
message-based career name? Find out more at www.
Instead of thinking of stevepavlina.com, or
yourself as an attorney, order Steve Pavlina’s
for instance, how about new book Personal
giving yourself the job title Development for Smart
“peacebringer” (someone who People to discover
resolves conflicts and restores the seven universal growth
peace)? principles (truth, love, power,
Or instead of being a oneness, authority, courage and
salesperson or a computer intelligence) to achieve major
programmer, try adopting the breakthroughs in your habits,
job title of “problem solver.” career, finances, relationships,
Wouldn’t that be more health and spiritual development.
accurate? How would you
react if someone handed you a
business card that said, “Jane
Smith, Peacebringer”?
I’m sure some people
would give more credibility to
a card that said, “Attorney at
Law” but I’d rather hire Jane
Smith, Peacebringer, since
that title tells me this person
understands the value of her
work extends beyond any
single medium.
What does your business
card say? Does it only list the
medium of your work, or does
it convey the message? What
would be a more appropriate
job title for you? What does your business card say?
Does it only list the medium of your
Beyond career work, or does it convey the message?
As I mentioned at the What would be a more appropriate job
beginning of this article, you
can apply this concept of the title for you?
medium vs. the message to
other parts of your life beyond
your career.
I’ll leave it to you to
think about how you might
differentiate between the
medium and the message in
terms of your health, your
relationships, your spiritual
beliefs, and so on. And for
another perspective that
SMART PEOPLE 13
LIVING

Survival
The vital piece of the information jigsaw!
By Joanna Goodman perspective often prompts In the interest of
creative thinking and new contributing some ‘KM-lite’,
I recently read an extract from approaches to problem here’s a totally different
The Survivors Club by Ben solving. scenario that highlights a
Joanna
Goodman is a Sherwood which examines This applies to business key knowledge management
London-based why some people survive and personal decisions, from principle. Last week, my
freelance writer disasters, while others perish. major ones like getting a husband and I decided to go
and editor It featured Dr. John Leach of second opinion on a medical for a Friday night drink at a
specializing in Lancaster University, an expert diagnosis, to insignificant local bar that I had passed
the legal and
in survival psychology who ones – what color to paint a many times on my way back
business sector.
She has written survived the 1987 fire at King’s room? As an editor, I always from work. He had been there
extensively on Cross underground station in need someone else to proof before and said it was quite
technology, London. read my own articles. Why? relaxed.
information He recalled watching As all copy editors will When we got there, I
and knowledge stunned commuters following know, if you read something felt seriously under-dressed
management,
their usual routes which led enough times, you become in my writing-from-home
communication
and corporate them straight into the fire blind to your own typos outfit of jeans and tee-shirt.
social instead of leaving the station. and spelling mistakes. This All the women had made a
responsibility. Apparently, people in shock is related to the way we lot more effort and the men
Contact Joanna often go into passive mode or recognize words and make generally looked very polished
at joanna. ‘brainlock’ and lose the ability associations between letters, too. There were also several
goodman@
to make decisions. but it is also because we read large groups of people. We
btinternet.com
His essential message what we anticipate seeing surmised that maybe this bar
was: in order to have the best on the page rather than was used as a meeting place
chance of being a survivor, what is actually there. The for people who were going on
you need to keep your first-time reader has no such somewhere more glamorous
wits about you, remember expectations. or that it was just an excellent
where you are, use all the In both scenarios, the place for people watching!
information you have and key is to use knowledge But when my husband
don’t just follow the crowd. productively – yours and went to get us a glass of wine,
In normal circumstances, other people’s. In the first he spotted a small notice
however, all sorts of decisions scenario, if you see fire, go by the bar: “Speed Dating
can benefit from the wisdom the other way, no matter what event starts at 10 pm.” This
of crowds – or at least everyone around you is doing. explained why everyone had
consulting others. They can Trust your own judgment. made such an effort – and
either In the second scenario, it’s why we were the only couple!
confirm often worth considering other We finished our drinks and
what you people’s perspective, which moved on.
originally is shaped by their individual And the moral of this
thought, knowledge and experience cautionary tale: one key piece
or prompt which can produce a better of knowledge can make all
you to think result. Even if you’re smarter the difference, so make sure
again. Looking than most people, you’re you have that vital piece of the
at a challenging unlikely to be smarter than information jigsaw that lets
project from someone else’s more people. you see the whole picture.

14 SMART PEOPLE

Brain Rules
No-nonsense truth about how our brains work
By John Medina
Go ahead and multiply the
number 8,388,628 x 2 in your
head. Can you do it in a few
seconds?
There is a young man
who can double that number
24 times in the space of a few
seconds. He gets it right
every time.
There is a boy who
can tell you the exact
time of day at any mo-
ment, even in his sleep.
There is a girl who
can correctly determine
the exact dimensions of
an object 20 feet away.
There is a child
who at age six drew
such lifelike and pow-
erful pictures, she
got her own show at
a gallery on Madison
Avenue.
Yet none of these children
could be taught to tie their
shoes. Indeed, none of them
has an IQ greater than 50.
The brain is
an amazing thing
Your brain may not be
nearly so odd, but it is no less
extraordinary.
Easily the most sophis-
ticated information-transfer
system on Earth, your brain
is fully capable of taking little
black squiggles on a piece of
bleached wood and deriving
meaning from them.
To accomplish this miracle,
your brain sends jolts of elec-
tricity crackling through hun-
dreds of miles of wires com-
posed of brain cells so small
that thousands of them could
fit into the period at the end
of this sentence.
You accomplish all of this
in less time than it takes you
to blink. Indeed, you have
just done it. What’s equally
incredible, given our intimate
association with it, is this:
Most of us have no idea
how our brain works.
This has strange conse-
quences. We try to talk on
our cell phones and drive at
the same time, even though it
is literally impossible for our
brains to multitask when it
comes to paying attention.
We have created high-
stress office environ-
ments, even though a
stressed brain is signifi-
cantly less productive. squiggles on this page and give it mean-
Our schools are de-
signed so that most real
learning has to occur at
home. This would be funny if
it weren’t so harmful.
Blame it on the fact that
brain scientists rarely have a
conversation with teachers
and business professionals,
LIVING
education majors and accoun-
tants, superintendents and
CEOs.
Unless you have the Jour-
nal of Neuroscience sitting on
your coffee table, you’re out of
the loop.
12 brain rules
With my book, Brain
Rules, my goal is to in-
troduce you to 12 things
we know about how the
brain works. I call these
Brain Rules.
For each rule, I pres-
ent the science and then
offer ideas for inves-
tigating how the rule
might apply to our daily
lives, especially at work
and school.
The brain is com-
plex, and I am taking
only slivers of informa-
tion from each subject, non-
comprehensive but accessible.
A sampling of the ideas:
n For starters, we are not
used to sitting at a desk
for eight hours a day. From
an evolutionary perspec-
tive, our brains developed
while working out, walk-
ing as many as 12 miles a
Your brain can take the little black
ing in less time than it takes to blink.
day. The brain still craves
the experience, especially
in sedentary populations
like our own. That’s why
exercise boosts brain power
(Brain Rule #1) in such
NEXT PAGE
SMART PEOPLE 15
LIVING
CONTINUED study, a 26-minute nap fascinating distance between a
improved NASA pilots’ gene and a behavior.
populations. Exercisers I have been a private con-
performance by 34 percent.
outperform couch pota- sultant for most of my profes-
Even so, the brain isn’t
toes in long-term memory, sional life, a hired gun for
resting while it sleeps. It is
reasoning, attention, research projects in need of a
surprisingly active. And
problem-solving tasks and developmental molecular biol-
whether you get enough
more. I am convinced that ogist with such specialization.
rest affects your mental
integrating exercise into I have had the privilege of
agility the next day. Sleep
our eight hours at work watching countless research
well, think well (Brain
or school efforts involving chromosomes
Rule #7).
would and mental function.
n There is a man who can
only be On such journeys, I oc-
read two pages at the same
normal. casionally would run across
time, one with each eye,
n As you articles and books that made
and remember everything
no doubt startling claims based on
in the pages forever. Most
have “recent advances” in brain sci-
of us do more forgetting
noticed ence about how to change the
than remembering, of
if you’ve way we teach people and do
course, and that’s why we
ever sat business. And I would panic,
must repeat to remember
through wondering if the authors were
(Brain Rule #5).
a typical reading some literature totally
n We’ll find out why the ter-
Power- off my radar screen.
rible twos only look like
Point pre- In truth, if we ever fully
active rebellion but are
sentation, understood how the human
actually a child’s powerful
people brain knew how to pick up a
urge to explore. Babies may
don’t pay glass of water, it would repre-
not have a lot of knowl-
attention sent a major achievement.
edge about the world, but
to boring There is no need to panic.
they know a whole lot
things You can responsibly train a
about how to get it. We are
(Brain skeptical eye on any claim that
all natural explorers (Brain
Rule #4). brain research can without
Rule #12), and this never
You’ve got equivocation tell us how to be-
leaves us, despite the arti-
seconds to come better teachers, parents,
ficial environments we’ve
grab some- business leaders or students.
built for ourselves.
one’s atten- Meanwhile, I call for re-
tion, and only 10 No prescriptions search simply because we
minutes to keep it. At 9 The ideas ending the don’t know enough to be pre-
minutes and 59 seconds, chapters of my book are not scriptive. It is an attempt to
something must be done a prescription. They are a call vaccinate against mythologies
quickly – something emo- for real-world research. like the “Mozart effect,” left
tional and relevant. Also, The reason springs from brain/right brain personali-
the brain needs a break. what I do for a living. My ties, and getting your babies
That’s why I use stories to research expertise is the mo- into Harvard by making them
make many of my points. lecular basis of psychiatric listen to language tapes while
n Ever feel tired they are still in the
around 3 o’clock When you understand the brain’s rules womb.
in the afternoon? for memory, you’ll see why I want to
That’s because your Back to the jungle
brain really wants destroy the notion of homework. What we know
to take a nap. You about the brain
might be more pro- disorders, but my real interest comes from biologists who
ductive if you did: In one is in trying to understand the study brain tissues, experimen-

16 SMART PEOPLE
 LIVING

tal psychologists who study Learning from our mis- Many of the studies have been
behavior and cognitive neuro- takes so we could survive in replicated dozens of times.
scientists who study how the the great outdoors meant pay- What do these studies show?
first relates to the second. ing attention to certain things Mostly this: If you wanted
Evolutionary biologists at the expense of others, and it to create an education envi-
have gotten into the act as meant creating memories in a ronment that was directly op-
well. Though we know pre- particular way. posed to what the brain was
cious little good at doing, you
about how the I speak several dialects of brain science, probably would de-
brain works,
our evolution-
and I knew nothing from those worlds sign something like a
classroom.
ary history capable of dictating best practices for If you wanted
tells us this: education and business. to create a business
The brain ap- environment that
pears to be was directly op-
designed to solve problems Though we have been posed to what the brain was
related to surviving in an un- stuffing them into classrooms good at doing, you probably
stable outdoor environment, and cubicles for decades, our would design something like
and to do so in nearly con- brains actually were built to a cubicle. And if you wanted
stant motion. survive in jungles and grass- to change things, you might
I call this the brain’s per- lands. have to tear down both and
formance envelope. I am a nice guy, but I am a start over.
Each subject in my book grumpy scientist. For a study In many ways, starting
– exercise, survival, wiring, to appear in my book, it has to over is what I’m all about.
attention, memory, sleep, pass what some at The Boeing
John Medina, author of the New
stress, sense, vision, gender Company (for which I have
York Times bestseller Brain Rules,
and exploration – relates to done some consulting) call the is a developmental molecular biolo-
this performance envelope. MGF: the Medina Grump Fac- gist and research consultant. He is
Motion translates to exer- tor. an affiliate professor of bioegineering
cise. Environmental instabil- That means the support- at the University of Washington
ity led to the extremely flex- ing research for each of my School of Medicine. He is also the
ible way our brains are wired, points must first be published director of the Brain Center for Ap-
allowing us to solve problems in a peer-reviewed journal and plied Learning Research at Seattle
through exploration. then successfully be replicated. Pacific University.

Reader dialogue: http://tinyurl.com/o4wo7y

President Obama fights for blackberry
Credibility might be increased if this article were updated from what Obama promised
and what his short history has demonstrated. This well-intended opinion piece has
been made fairly useless and even wrong as it depended on the President to honor his
pledge of openness.
~ Ken

To be a responsible new media publication, we asked the author to respond and he

did in the online html version of the April issue of Smart People. Now we’ve asked Neil
Olonoff to investigate and do a follow-up article for the August edition.

SMART PEOPLE 17
LEARNING
LEARNING Human-computer interaction
Forum examines the impact of technology on children
Today’s children are coming
of age immersed in video
gaming, Web browsing and
instant messaging.
Many have cell phones,
laptops and hand-held video
games. Others have created
avatars of themselves, and
some are raising robot pets in
virtual worlds.
What impact does this
technology have on children?
In a new issue, the
journal Children, Youth and
Environments (CYE) explores
the promises and perils ahead
for children in technological
environments.
Co-edited by a human-
computer interaction (HCI)
professor from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute and a
developmental psychology
professor from the University
of Washington, the issue
examines the increasing
prevalence of technology
from various perspectives,
including knowledge and
education, social and moral
development, culture and
community, access and
equity, relationship to nature,
therapy and health, art
and expression, and future
scenarios.
“Today, technology is
part of everyday life, and
it can easily mediate or
even replace other types of
experiences,” said Nathan
G. Freier, assistant professor
of HCI in the Department of
Language, Literature, and
Communication, with a joint
appointment in Information
Technology, at Rensselaer.
18 SMART PEOPLE
“This journal issue provides
us with a forum to address
this ongoing dialogue
regarding the impact of
technology on children, and
find ways to strike a balance
in terms of interaction,
development, and design.”
With readers in more
than 160 countries, CYE
offers access to authoritative
research articles, in-depth
analyses, cutting-edge field
reports and critical book
reviews.
“Through past centuries,
technologies have offered
enormous benefits to
children,” Freier said.
“Written language, for
example, can be incredibly
beautiful and, compared
to spoken language, the
written word – from clay
tablets, to pen and paper,
to digital computers – has
allowed for new depths and
forms of communication and
expression, an unfolding of
human awareness.”
Freier’s research
interests fit within the broad
area of human-computer
interaction with emphasis
on technologies for children,
social robotics and value
sensitive design.
His work explores how
children develop socially
and morally in the context
of increased interactions
with apparently intelligent,
autonomous systems such as
graphical avatars and social
robots.
His co-author, Peter
H. Kahn Jr., is an associate
professor in the Department
of Psychology and adjunct
professor in the Information
School at the University of
Washington. He also serves
as director of the university’s
Human Interaction with
Nature and Technological
Systems (HINTS) Lab.
According to their
research, today’s technology
is more sophisticated and
invasive.
Children play
multiplayer online role-
playing games (MMORPGs),
which allows for large
numbers of players to
interact by controlling and
developing their fictional
characters in adventurous
game settings.
In 2006, MMORPG
revenues exceeded $1
billion. Also, video games
dominate children’s media
entertainment. In more
recent years, inexpensive
robot pets and online
virtual pets have become
increasingly popular.
“Technology is good and
it can help our lives, but let’s
not be fooled into thinking
we can live without nature,”
said Kahn.
“We are losing direct
experiences with nature.
Instead, more and more
we’re experiencing nature
represented technologically
through television and other
media. Children grow up
watching Discovery Channel
and Animal Planet, playing
with robotic pets, and taking
virtual tours of the Grand

Canyon on their computers.
That’s probably better than
nothing. But as a species we
need interaction with actual
nature for our physical and
psychological well-being.”
Freier also noted that
the interactions and amount
of time that children are
spending with technologies,
particularly the Internet,
communication technologies
and video games, are forcing
educators to redefine what
they mean by learning
processes and outcomes.
“As we worked to
develop ideas for the
special issue of the journal,
important considerations
when assessing the benefits of
new technologies, especially
those of a digital and virtual
form that act as a go-between
with the physical world, are
the benchmarks to rely upon
when establishing the benefits
and harms,” Freier added.
“Such benchmarks
may include psychological
and physiological effects
experienced while using a
form of technology.”
The future impact of
yesterday’s technology
The journal also
highlights the fact that visions
of the future as portrayed
through media and literature
(such as science fiction) are
one of the powerful drivers of
technological environments.
In the mid-1960s, for
example, Gene Roddenberry,
creator of the original Star
Trek television series, saw
the value of small, handheld
mobile communication
devices; thus the “flip” design
of the crew’s Communicators
seemingly influenced the
design of the common cell
phone we see in use today.
Also, the android
character Data in Star Trek:
The Next Generation shows
us how fragile our own
self-identity is when we
look into the eyes of a man-
machine and see our own
reflection. And perhaps, the
woman-machine in the classic
Metropolis reflects our deep-
seated nightmares of a future
gone wrong.
Freier noted that we also
see this tension play out in
Asimov’s iRobot series of
short stories in which robots
are intentionally designed to
benefit humanity, but all too
often the robots (and humans,
ironically) fall victim to their
own immense complexity.
“It is obvious that today’s
children are coming of age
in yesterday’s science fiction
future,” Freier said. “Children
today know no other way
of being, no other way of
existing in the world. Our
faith in the benefits of those
who play a significant role
in shaping our technological
force is often balanced with
the fears of the unknown and
uncontrollable sinister force
embedded within
the technologies,
often
unbeknownst
to the designers
themselves.
“This process
of balance – which
leads to children’s
intellectual,
social, and moral
development – will
be, and already is,
strongly shaped by the
technological environments
children inhabit,” he added.
LEARNING
“Thus we need to design our
technological environments
wisely.”
According to the authors,
the most important lesson to
remember is that “we are not
a technological species, but
one that came of age through
deep and intimate daily
contact with other humans
and with an embodied,
physical natural and often
wild world – and we still
need that world to flourish as
a species.”
“In the years ahead,
technological nature will
get more sophisticated and
compelling,” Kahn said.
“But if it continues to replace
our interaction with actual
nature, it will come at a cost.
To thrive as a species, we still
need to interact with nature
by encountering an animal
in the wild, walking along
the ocean’s edge or sleeping
under the enormity of the
night sky.”
To view the publication,
visit www.colorado.
edu/journals/cye/19_1/
SMART PEOPLE 19
LEARNING
Digital generation project
Insightful look into lives of 10 extraordinary digital youth
“Nobody calls anybody
anymore. If you want to get
hold of someone, you text
them,” says 13-year-old Sam,
checking one of 114 messages
in her cell phone in box.
Sam is one of 10 young
people profiled in Edutopia’s
Digital Generation Project,
the culmination of a year-
long investigation into the
media-rich, networked lives of
today’s digital generation.
The video portraits aim
to help educators and parents
understand how digital
media are changing how this
generation of young people
20 SMART PEOPLE
create, collaborate, and teach.
In addition to the biographical
video portraits, visitors to the
project’s Web site can explore
links to each student’s games,
projects, Web sites and video
creations.
The excitement of the
youth, and their ease in
navigating their digital
worlds, not to mention what
and how they are learning
is truly impressive -- and
inspiring. They include:
n Eleven-year-old Cameron,
who produces and edits music
videos, short documentaries,
and school announcements
at home, at school, and on the
road with his hockey team
-- and films his own hockey
swing, slows it down and
analyzes it. http://tinyurl.
com/mza92n
n Thirteen-year-old Dylan,
who collaborates with
students from all over the
world to make award-winning
Web sites. http://tinyurl.com/
nkz94c
n Eighteen-year-old Luis,
who teaches Lego Robotics
to kids and maps the trees in
his community with global-
positioning-system devices.
http://tinyurl.com/mqcyj6
n Eighteen-year-old Nafiza,
a graduate of Global Kids’s
Online Leadership Program,
who works with other
students to make animated
films on pressing social issues
using Teen Second Life. http://
tinyurl.com/kjcxr8
n Twelve-year-old Jalen,
who participates in the Digital
Youth Network after-school
program; Jalen and his friends
use the social-networking site
Remix World to critique their
work before publishing it on
YouTube. http://tinyurl.com/
qrnd3x
n Nine-year-old Dana, a
member of Kidsteam, at the
For education reform
Edutopia is funded by The
George Lucas Educational
Foundation
Edutopia is published by The
George Lucas Educational
Foundation, founded in 1991 by
filmmaker George Lucas as a
nonprofit operating foundation
that documents, disseminates
and advocates for innovation
and the redesign of K-12 learning
environments, including how
technology transforms teaching
and learning.
By using Edutopia.
org, Edutopia magazine,
Edutopia video, the Edutopia
News e-newsletter, and a
growing online community,
the Foundation is building
a movement to stimulate
education reform with a special
focus on core concepts of
comprehensive assessment,
integrated studies, project
learning, social and emotional
learning, teacher development,
and technology integration.
More information can be
found at Edutopia.org, one of
the leading education sites on
the Internet.

University of Maryland’s
Human-Computer Interaction
Lab, which helps design better
technology for kids. http://
tinyurl.com/npu5jg
“With so much
commentary about the
technological culture today’s
young people inhabit, we felt
it was important to show the
diversity of their digital lives,
up close and personal, from
a variety of backgrounds
and locales,” explains Milton
Chen, executive director of
The George Lucas Educational
Foundation.
“We want to help
educators and parents
understand these new tools
and behaviors and consider
how they can be applied in
new ways of teaching and
learning.”
The Digital Generation
Project also includes
interviews with teachers,
administrators, and parents
who address the challenges
and rewards they face while
striving to keep pace and
support these digital learners.
Interviews with big
thinkers like Howard
LEARNING
Gardner, James Paul Gee,
Mimi Ito, Henry Jenkins and
Katie Salen help frame the
discussion.
The Digital Generation
Project was produced with
support from the John
D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation as
part of a $50 million digital-
media and learning initiative
that explores how digital
media are changing how
young people learn, play,
socialize, and participate in
civic life.

Even baboons benefit from social networking

Monkey communication expert Robert Seyfarth kicked The baboons that Seyfarth and Cheney studied
off of the University of Delaware’s Year of Darwin live in groups of 80-90 individuals. Males leave the
celebration with a true story, documented in 1961, group in which they are born, while females stay in the
about a female baboon that herded goats in an African group for their entire lives, with close bonds to female
village. relatives.
The baboon knew all of the relationships between The females
the goats so well that at night she would carry a are arranged in a
bleating kid from one barn directly to its mother in matrilineal hierarchy
another barn. of families, with
“For all the centuries that we’ve bred dogs, no dog ranks maintained
has exhibited this knowledge of kids and mothers,” for years.
said Seyfarth, who is a psychology professor at the Although once
University of Pennsylvania. “The question is where in a while a coup
does this state of mind come from?” is attempted, such
Seyfarth transported an audience of about 200 moves are not often
people into the fascinating world of the baboons of successful.
Botswana’s Okavanga Delta, which he and Dorothy “Families stick
Cheney, his research partner, fellow Penn professor together,” Seyfarth
and spouse, studied from 1992 to 2008. said.
Their work is highlighted in the award-winning “The rules are,
book Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind, like in a Jane Austen
published by the University of Chicago Press in 2007. novel, be nice to
Based on their research, Seyfarth said he and your relatives and
Cheney argue that the baboon’s ability to recognize get in with the high-
social relationships is due to natural selection. ranking relatives.”
This is the process in nature, according to Darwin’s The series, to
theory of evolution, in which only the organisms best continue through
adapted to their environment tend to survive and the fall, honors the
reproduce. 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the
150th anniversary of the publication of his landmark
work, On the Origin of Species.

SMART PEOPLE 21
LEARNING
Obaminoes mural
The fun way to learn math in elementary school
Students at Franklin Avenue
Elementary School and nearby
Westfield State College,
Westfield, Massachusetts, US,
created a mural of President
Barack Obama – in dominoes.
The official unveiling of
the mural – called Obaminoes
– took place in the school
cafeteria.
Julian F. Fleron, professor
of mathematics at Westfield
State, said the work is a based
on a design by Robert A.
Bosch, a mathematician at
Ohio’s Oberlin College, who
created the mural’s plans for
Obama’s inauguration.
The elementary school’s
display took 2,420 dominoes
– 44 complete sets of double-
nine dominoes to create the
mural of the 44th president.
The mural, which will be
on permanent display at the
22 SMART PEOPLE
school, is 4-feet tall and almost of counting, sorting and
6.5-feet wide. classifying, measurement,
“The Obaminoes mural coordinate geometry,
is an excellent example of the symmetry, patterns and
college’s primary mission at reasoning tools and problem
work – learning combined solving,” Fleron said. “All of
with community service,” said these areas are central parts of
Evan S. Dobelle, president of the mathematics curriculum.
Westfield State. “Everyone There was a ton of learning
involved, from kindergarten going on.”
students to the college faculty, The project also involved
expanded their mathematics construction of a grid strong
skills and had fun in the enough to mount the panels –
process.” a design similar to an airplane
Obaminoes was a learning wing – and discussion of
experience at all levels, Fleron artistic techniques, such a
said. It involved using some of pointillism and photomosaics.
the most sophisticated to the Students, who saw their
most basic mathematical tools, finished project for the first
and was also related to other time at the unveiling, were
disciplines, clearly proud and enthusiastic.
such as art and They sang “This Land is
social studies. Your Land” and “Fifty Nifty
The United States” and handed out
creation of dominoes with a miniature
Obaminoes mural, made by Fleron, to
involves guests.
the use of a Fifth grade student
mathematical Nathaniel Brady said, “I
algorithm thought it was fun and it
known actually gave us hands-on
as linear experience instead of doing a
programming, lot of paperwork.”
Fleron said. “It helped me do fractions
“This has and stuff and practice adding
been called the together,” said fourth grade
most important student Conlan Spinale. “And
real-world it was fun.”
mathematics
problem, with More details can be found on the
applications in Obaminoes project’s Web site, http://
such areas as obaminoes.wsc.ma.edu, where Fleron
transportation, offers more in-depth information
on linear programming and how to
telecommunications and all investigate linear programming at
large scale production and the K-5 level.
distribution.”
“The construction of
Obaminoes required a wealth

Knowledge sharing
Pan-European knowledge exchange launches at e-learning event
A pan-European Knowledge
Exchange was officially launched
at Online Educa Conference Berlin
recently.
Made up of four national
European ICT (information and
communication technology)
education bodies, the new
organization aims to develop closer
working relationships in order to
increase the return on national
investment in ICT infrastructure,
services and projects.
Founding members of the
Knowledge Exchange are JISC
(UK), the SURF Foundation
(Netherlands), the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany)
and Denmark’s Electronic Research
Library (DEFF).
With the international
dimension increasingly important
both in education and research
and in the use of ICT, these
organizations will work together
under the umbrella of the
Knowledge Exchange.
The goal is of the group is
to share information, increase
the profile of national research
and development activities and,
where appropriate, work toward a
common infrastructure based on
international standards.
Another key aim of the new
body is to provide information for
European policy.
Senior representatives of the
European Union attending the
Online Educa Conference also
attended the Knowledge Exchange
launch and heard from its founder
partners about the organization’s
plans for the first year, and its vision
of a partnership of four countries,
sharing knowledge, exploring
differences, collaborating and
promoting international dialogue.
The Knowledge Exchange will
be coordinated from a central office,
located with Denmark’s Electronic
Research Library, Copenhagen, for
the first three years.
Bo Öhrström, deputy
director to the Danish National
Library Authority and host for
the Knowledge Exchange office,
welcomes this opportunity: “DEFF
looks forward to a closer co-
operation with prominent, national
organizations. The KE initiative
will surely help us to achieve
better, quicker and cheaper digital
development results. Especially
within DEFF we are sure that the
establishment and results of KE can
support the Danish government in
turning Denmark into a Knowledge
Society.”
Founding member Norman
Wiseman, head of Outreach and
Institutional Support, JISC, toasted
the launch of this experimental
initiative by saying: ”Each of
the four countries brings to the
Knowledge Exchange its own
perspective, background, strengths
and its own leadership role. The
strength of this partnership is our
working together towards common
standards, looking for compatible
structures and innovative solutions
together, while retaining our
distinct identities.”
Bas Cordewener, founder
member from SURF, anticipates
the benefits Knowledge Exchange
might bring.
“For a small country like the
Netherlands, we firmly believe
that by joining forces, by drawing
upon our strengths and emphasis,
we can really make a difference.
Supporting the European agendas
to enable access to information
and mobility for students will
LEARNING
require infrastructure and services
developed in collaboration. We
hope Knowledge Exchange will
facilitate our efforts.”
Dr. Sigrun Ecklemann,
program director in the Group
Academic Libraries and
Information Systems at the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,
emphasizes the contribution the
initiative can make to researchers.
“Creating the optimal virtual
environment for researchers means
needing to choose from a wide
array of possible strategies and
technologies. By creating a forum
for the exchange of thoughts,
practices and ideas among
funding organizations, Knowledge
Exchange allows us to make more
informed decisions in our own
policies and creates the possibility
of developing projects in tandem
with other countries.”
For further information on the
Knowledge Exchange visit: www.
knowledge-exchange.info/ or contact:
Diann Rusch-Feja [drf@knowledge-
exchange.info5]or Nina von Staffeldt
[nvs@knowledge-exchange.info6].
SMART PEOPLE 23
CREATING
CREATING SmartInnovators
You know the game has changed. How do you fit?
By Debra M. Amidon
After 20 years of deep
research and on-the-ground
leadership, Smart People
Magazine has asked me to
explain our work in plain
language. And I have to do it
in two pages (give me three,
please!).
The focus of our
research has been on helping
organizations realize the
changes taking place in
the business and economic
environment that have lead
to the rapidly ascending
importance of innovators in
a knowledge-driven, rapidly
changing global environment.
It is not only a complex
subject, but also a change that
has transformed a relatively
simple industrial economy
into an extremely complex
knowledge economy. In an
introduction such as this, the
details can be overwhelming.
All about you
So let’s leap the barrier
by acknowledging that the
bottom line is all about you
– smart people. For it is
around smart people that this
new economy evolves.
Leadership in the
Knowledge Economy is
different from the industrial
or even information
economies.
It is an economy in which
the innovation capacity
of every human being,
enterprise and nation is fully
engaged. It is an economy in
which culture and heritage
are respected, commonalities
24 SMART PEOPLE
are more important than
differences, and aspirations
can be shared across
boundaries.
Intellectual capital (IC)
originally described the need
to harness the knowledge
base of an enterprise and in
the context of prosperous
innovation. Most efforts
resulted in three primary
facets: Human Capital,
Relational Capital and
Structural Capital.
To simplify this, we have
broken it down further with
our Triple Knowledge Lens
(TKL) – a triangulation of a
Knowledge-based Economy
(commerce and business), the
Knowledge-based Society
(networks, communities and
culture), and the Knowledge-
based Infrastructure
(organization, technology and
environment).
And then into the 15
‘capitals’ people need to be
Smartinnovators. See how
many capitals you have:
Inventorying your ‘capitals’
n Knowledge Capital: How
well respected are you for the extent do others respect and
power, depth and breadth of
the knowledge assets in your
personal portfolio including
specialized know-how,
experience and knowledge
mastery?
n Leadership Capital: Do
others generally recognize
you as having outstanding
leadership qualities, skills, and inhabit to be an active high
capabilities?
n Innovation Capital: Do you participant, and representative
have proven and consistent
capabilities regarding the
incubation, development,
production and of marketing
of innovative designs,
processes, and systems?
n Entrepreneurship Capital:
How recognized are you for
exhibiting entrepreneurial
instinct, passion, zeal, drive,
and success?
n Reputation Capital: To
what extent do you work to
build a positive image and
standing in your field and how
are you perceived by others?
n Diversity Capital: To what
extent do you proactively
maintain, cultivate, and
respect diversity in your
relationships, networks, and
community connections?
n Brand Capital: To what
extent does the brand
encompassing You.Inc have
visibility, presence and
positive mindshare in the
marketplace?
n Network Capital: Would
others consider you to have
deep, dense, far-reaching
network connections and
influence within those
networks?
n Cultural Capital: To what
trust your unique constellation
of values and the ethos
reflected in your mindset, way
of thinking, spirit, learning
desire, imagination and
creativity?
n Social and Community
Capital: Are you recognized
within the communities you
involvement contributor,
of all that’s good within those
social ecologies?

n Strategic Capital: Do you
have formulated business
plans in place, business
designs, business models,
that provide you with a
superior and strategic business
advantage?
n Organizational Capital:
Do you have organizational
structures and capabilities in
place that provide you with a
collaborative advantage?
n Intellectual Property
Capital: To what extent are you
in explicit control of valuable
intellectual property assets?
n Technological Capital:
How do you think an
independent outsider would
rate your technological
sophistication and prowess?
n Environmental Capital:
How do you think others
would assess the extent to
which you have internalized
socially responsible,
sustainable, and green values
into your current practice?
Again, if you have lots of
these ‘capitals’, don’t get a big
head. You don’t have them
all, so you need to collaborate
with others to complete the
list.
SmartInnovator’s guide
After two decades of
dedicated research, we
have evolved a blueprint
– an integrated and
interdependent series of steps
from idea-creation through
conversion and ultimate
commercialization of new
product ideas and services
– the seven Ps:
SmartInnovators
P1 have a sense of
Purpose.
Explore a fundamentally
new mindset of how best to
approach the kaleidoscopic
change of a knowledge
economy. It is not the speed
of change as much as it is the
compounding effects creating
a dramatically new landscape
for innovation.
The Triple Knowledge
Lens (TKL) provides that
mindset. You need a timely
understanding of emerging
trends ranging from the war
for talent, effect of networks,
new business models for
commerce and delivery,
virtualization of markets,
globalization, the value of
visualization, and zones of
innovation. Such a mindset
must be holistic, integrated
and complete.
SmartInnovators
P2 guide their efforts
with a set of
Principles.
Root your strategic
direction with a core
value system, shared
vision, and standards of
operational excellence.
You need to appreciate the
interdependence among
variables: performance,
structure, people, process
and technology. You need
to be savvy about the new
organizing principles – how
they are different from
industrial management – and
the implications for your own
action-based planning.
There are new forms
of wealth-creation, new
constellations of networks and
social media, and an evolving
knowledge innovation grid
or mesh supporting real-time
innovation dynamics. There
are new rules of the game. The
old ones do not apply; and
the new ones have yet to be
innovated. So, become a part
of the action. Ground your
CREATING
plans amidst the uncertainty
and do not be afraid to iterate
new solutions. The knowledge
environment is one that
demands constant adaptation.
SmartInnovators
P3 understand the
full Process for
innovation and their
respective roles.
Appreciate how innovation
usually takes many players
– several even outside the
walls of the organization
– to bring an idea to market.
The impetus for change –
incremental and breakthrough
– begins with the individual
– every individual. Value is
realized when joint insights
are crystallized into actionable
projects and services.
Innovation is idea creation
through full application. It is
theory in practice. It involves
creation, conversion and
commercialization. It includes
monitoring the competition, but
not where they have been . . .
where they are headed.
In other words, how are
the competitors innovating?
You need to help develop
strategic alliances, customer/
stakeholder image and
interface, leadership visibility
and leverage technology and
communications.
SmartInnovators
P4 gauge Performance
with financial
and non-financial
measures.
Building upon the TKL,
identify those relevant
parameters of what would
constitute success – however
that might be defined.
Enterprises are increasingly
dependent upon value
contributed to the bottom-line
SMART PEOPLE 25
CREATING
by intangible or intellectual
– human, relational and
structural variables. To realize
results from ambitious plans
– whether company, country
or cluster-based – requires
significantly improved
indicators to ensure economic
growth and/or regulate and
streamline performance
delivery. Take action to create
the conditions and incentives
to optimize your success and
inspire the imagination of
sponsors for financing. As
difficult as it may initially
be, define those intangible
variables with as much
precision as possible. We
know what can be measured
gets managed. Perhaps what
gets innovated gets measured
too!
SmartInnovators
P5 want governing
Policies which
are ethical and
transparent.
Consider the relationship
between governing policies
and behavior. Perhaps this
dimension of innovation is the
least understood in today’s
Knowledge Economy. Trust
relationships appear to be the
primary cultural norm in this
new era of knowledge-sharing
and collaboration.
The flow of knowledge
and intangible assets, not
the flow of technology per
se, needs to be incentivized
and monitored. To enable a
culture of innovation and
entrepreneurship – whether
company or industry-based
– requires new methods of
governance. Given emerging
market dynamics, new
guidelines are required
to cultivate community
networks, high levels of trust
26 SMART PEOPLE
and transparency, responsible your work. However you
risk-taking, and enterprise define your constituency, you
brand integrity. These are not are dependent upon their
the command-and-control success, not their satisfaction.
systems of the past, but Stakeholder interaction is more
develop leadership vertically, about a continuous Mobius
horizontally and diagonally… strip relationship of creating
and, for the most part, need mutual value.
to be considered in a local, Once designed and
regional and global context. developed, initiatives
need contact feedback and
SmartInnovators
P6
monitoring so that progress
use the dynamics of
is inevitable and sustainable.
‘bench-learning’ to
Promotion takes many forms,
monitor Practices.
such as verbal, print and
Around the world,
multi-media, and should
organizations are
almost always be considered
experimenting with new bi-directional. Treat customers
models of management – and stakeholders and
innovations, from competitors, for that matter
communities of practice to - as sources of knowledge,
electronic (and even mobile) rather than points for end
conferencing. This new delivery. They are partners in
knowledge leadership requires your future.
an understanding of the new So, there you have it. The
roles and responsibilities at
all levels of the organization,
three-legged stool of TKL,
the SmartInnovator’s guide to
and a deeper understanding IC, and the SmartInnovator’s
of how best to guide behavior sense of purpose. All three
with improved metrics and are built around smart people
incentives to put into place as the key, yet, all three are
sustainable actions. dependent on the collaboration
There is consensus that of smart people, smart systems
that innovation competence is and smart organizations to
more about changing behavior succeed. Understand these
– individual and group – than principles, integrate your
just developing new ideas personal IC into them, choose
and skills. Benchmarking the right partners, and you
is outdated; so seek an will fit successfully into the
organizational partner that Knowledge Economy.
takes a much more dynamic
Debra M. Amidon is founder and
and interactive approach of
CEO of Entovation International,
bench-learning, (i.e., learn Ltd., She is author of several
from the best). books including The Innovation
SuperHighway. Web site www.
SmartInnovators
entovation.com/; contact: debra@
P7 have a sense of
Prosperity depends
entovation.com
upon stakeholder The TKL Inventory is an Intellectual
innovation. Capital (IC) assessment tool produced
You have not innovated by the KAIETEUR Institute of
until your stakeholders Knowledge Management and
place more demands on ENTOVATION International Ltd.

Collaboration applies video game technology for defense
While most primary and secondary schools have yet to tap into the knowledge and curiosity that
students and their professors bring to the classroom, many institutions of higher education have
become breeding grounds for discovery, innovation and invention. Georgia Tech is such a place.
Video gaming computers
and video game consoles
available today typically
contain a graphics processing
unit (GPU), which is very
efficient at manipulating and
displaying computer graphics.
However, the unit’s highly
parallel structure also makes it
more efficient than a general-
purpose central processing
unit for a range of complex
calculations important to
defense applications.
Researchers in the Georgia
Tech Research Institute
(GTRI) and the Georgia
Tech School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering are
developing programming
tools to enable engineers in
the defense industry utilize
the processing power of GPUs
without having to learn the
programming language.
“As radar systems and
other sensor systems get
more complicated, the
computational requirements
are becoming a bottleneck,”
said GTRI senior research
engineer Daniel Campbell.
“We are capitalizing on the
ability of GPUs to process
radar, infrared sensor and
video data faster than a typical
computer and at a much lower
cost and power.”
Mark Richards, a principal
research engineer and adjunct
professor in the School of
Electrical and Computer
Engineering, is collaborating
with Campbell and graduate
student Andrew Kerr to
CREATING
rewrite common signal engineers to understand the
processing commands to entire GPU architecture by
run on a GPU. This work is simply providing them with
supported by the U.S. Defense a library of routines that they
Advanced Research Projects frequently use.”
Agency and the U.S. Air Force The research team is also
Research Laboratory. assessing the advantages of
The researchers are GPUs by running a library of
writing functions defined in benchmarks for quantitatively
the Vector, Signal and Image comparing high-performance,
Processing Library (VSIPL) embedded computing
to run on GPUs. VSIPL is an systems. The benchmarks
open standard developed by address important operations
embedded signal and image across a broad range of U.S.
processing hardware and Department of Defense
software vendors, academia, signal and image processing
application developers and applications.
government labs. GPU VSIPL
is available for download at
http://gpu-vsipl.gtri.gatech.
edu/.
The researchers are
currently writing the
functions in Nvidia’s CUDA™
language, but the underlying
principles can be applied to
GPUs developed by other
companies, according to
Campbell. The researchers are
learning that GPU functions
operate between 20 and 350
times faster than a central
processing unit, depending
on the function and size of the
data set.
“The results are not
surprising because GPUs
excel at performing repetitive
arithmetic tasks like those
in VSIPL, such as signal
processing functions like
Fourier transforms, spectral
Mark Richards (left), Daniel Campbell
analysis, image formation (center) and Andrew Kerr are using graphics
and noise filtering,” noted processing units (GPUs) to quickly perform
Richards. “We’ve just linear algebra and signal processing operations
alleviated the need for for defense applications.
SMART PEOPLE 27
CREATING
Smart Dad
Idea leads to quick release for child safety seat
News reports of a teenager
unable to free a toddler from
a burning vehicle’s child
safety seat helped convince
a Rome, Georgia, US, dad
that his idea of an alternative
quick release mechanism for
such seats was needed.
A dentist, Dr. Michael
Blackmon, teamed with the
University of Alabama and
others to take his concept
from inspiration to patented
idea to reality, and now
he hopes to take the two
emergency harness release
inventions to the large-scale
production stage.
The point of the
inventions is to provide
an easy, alternative way to
quickly remove a child from
a safety seat in an emergency
situation.
Both methods add
mechanisms to existing
child safety seats and, in
addition to the quick release
28 SMART PEOPLE
capabilities, also provide
options for removing a child
should the standard release
become jammed during the
crash or if it were inaccessible
in a crumpled vehicle, the
developers say.
Blackmon, whose own
children
are 11 and
8, said he
conceived
the idea
several
years ago
when
looking at
his then
pre-school
age children
strapped
into their
car seats.
“They
looked like
little jet fighter pilots sitting
back there.”
And while fighter pilots
have more than one option
to remove themselves from
restraint mechanisms during
an emergency, there was
only one option, the standard
release, for removing his
children.
Standard child seats have
saved thousands of lives, but
those same devices that hold
a child securely can have
devastating consequences as
well. When an accident occurs,
the initial impact is not the
only danger. Fires may break
out. The vehicle may sink in
deep water, or have landed in
other harm’s way
Adults can free
themselves. Unfortunately
children depend on others
to let them out. Others may
be bystanders who are not
familiar with the operation
of the safety seat. Precious
minutes can be lost while a
Samaritan tries to rescue the
infant.
Blackmon had the right
idea, but he was no engineer.
Under an agreement, the
dentist’s patent application
was assigned to the University
of Alabama. And UA’s
Alabama Innovation and
Mentoring of Entrepreneurs
Center and its Office for
Technology Transfer are now
assisting Blackmon in further
development of the device and
a business model.
Working together with
Joe McGinty of Huntsville,
the group designed and
produced two emergency
release mechanisms built to
Department of Transportation
specifications.
Blackmon has spent
some of his own money on
development of the project
– he declined to say exactly
how much – and UA students
and faculty have committed
hundreds of hours fine-tuning
the design and building
prototypes.
A final prototype was
built by an outside firm with
experience meeting the strict
standards for devices that
must be approved by the U.S.
Department of Transportation.
The group is now
approaching car seat
manufacturers.
Video: http://tinyurl.com/l75czn
 CREATING

‘Wetware’ is adaptable
How can software be organized to think like a human?
Unlike computers, people do not have static memories.
That’s what makes the ‘wetware’ – our brains – more intelligent than any software.
There are lots of reasons why knowledge management systems
would be much better if they were more like the human brain.
By Dr. Roger Schank People seem to be able to the exceptions to those
and Dimitri Lyras cope with new information generalizations. As we have
with ease. They can readily more experiences, we alter
People change their internal find a place to store new our generalizations and
classification systems when information in their categorizations of information
their conceptions change, or memories, although they don’t to meet our current needs and
when their need for retrieval know where they’ve located it. reflect our new experiences.
changes. People can
They change their focus, also find old People have dynamic memory and get smarter
their interests and the things information, but over time. The knowledge work question is how
they think about and they again they don’t
remember those changes. know where to make IT systems more like the human brain.
For the most part, such they found it and
changes are not conscious. they can’t really say what the Despite constant changes
People are not typically aware look-up procedure might have in the organization of our
of the internal categorization been. brains, we can still call up
scheme they use. Our memories change relevant memories without
They change them without dynamically in the way consciously considering
even realizing they have done we store information by where we have stored them.
it. That’s known as dynamic abstracting significant The question for
memory – getting smarter generalizations from our knowledge management (KM)
over time without realizing it. experiences and storing is how to make IT systems
more like the
human brains.
Our memories
adjust
dynamically
to reflect new
experiences.
A dynamic
memory is
by nature
a learning
system. No
KM system
learns. But
systems need
to learn in
order to work
properly.

NEXT PAGE

SMART PEOPLE 29
CREATING
CONTINUED if we were served by the repeat the same experience.
same waitress at a different They allow us to organize
The underlying question restaurant or dined with low-level sequential
relates to how knowledge the same companions. Our knowledge. Higher-level,
is structured. Software memories index information more abstract notions enable
developers structure in many different ways. One learning because they allow
knowledge when they build set of indices is the people, knowledge sharing across
any KM system by inventing props and places – the three Ps script boundaries.
a set of categories in which that are associated specifically What happens when we
documents are placed. with a particular incident. fix something? Is this a script?
But, what categories do But there is another, more Not really. There might be
people use inside their heads? abstract indexing method that many scripts each dependent
People use knowledge goes beyond the three Ps and upon what is being fixed. But,
structures, ways of organizing uses indices around actions, if we treat every instance of
information into a coherent the results of actions, and the fixing something as a unique
whole, to process what goes lessons learned from actions. experience, how will we learn
on around them. Knowledge These indices are key to any each time we fix something?
structures help us make sense KM system. Without them, It is reasonable to assume
of the world around us. no one will learn anything that people who fix things
Understanding how from an event beyond the get smarter about the process
human knowledge structures information relating to its each time. So how do they
are acquired helps us people, props and places. learn?
understand what they So how do we find the In any knowledge-based
represent. Learning depends information we already have? understanding system,
upon knowledge and This depends upon how it was information can be stored
knowledge depends upon indexed (or categorized) in the in either a script-organized
learning. first place. Learning depends or plan/goal-based form. If
upon the initial we choose not to generalize,
If we treat each instance of fixing something categorization of we can use script-based
what we know, organization for a KM system.
as different from every other scenario, but we may This is more efficient in
how will the lessons learned find their way change those the short term. Knowing a
categorizations great deal about a discrete
to a new problem? in order to get set of roles and tasks in an
smarter. A KM organization is a good way to
A script is a simple system that does not do categorize information within
knowledge structure that this will fail to absorb new that organization.
organizes knowledge that information in significant But information
we acquire from experience, ways. organized by scripts never
such as event sequences in What knowledge transcends the boundaries of
restaurants, air travel, and structures does human those scripts. Any KM system
hotel check in. We know memory use? must be able to know a great
what to expect and we Higher-level knowledge deal about one script without
interpret events in light of structures for more complex losing the power to apply
our expectations. But do we issues hinge upon the generalizations drawn from
use this kind of structure to notions of abstraction and that knowledge to a different
manage our knowledge? generalization. Scripts are set of issues.
If something odd happens specific sets of information A script, and any other
to us in a restaurant, how do naturally acquired when we memory structure, should be
we recall it later? Let’s count part of a dynamic memory
the ways. We would recall it with the ability to change as
if we went back to the same a result of incorporating new
restaurant at another time, experiences. Any structure
30 SMART PEOPLE

Learning depends upon knowledge and
knowledge depends upon learning.
for organizing knowledge
must be capable of self-
modification in response to
new experiences that differ
from the normative events
that a script describes.
When new information
is placed in a dynamically
organized knowledge system,
if that information amplifies or
clarifies a particular script, it is
simply added to it. But when a
new event modifies the script,
its difference must be noted
and applied to all relevant
structures.
By utilizing general
structures to encode what we
know in memory, a system
can learn. Given enough
modifications from a script,
an intelligent system would
begin to create new general
structures to account for those
differences. Just because an
episode was new, it should
not always be seen as new.
Eventually we recognize what
was once novel as old hat and
in order to do this, we must
constantly modify our general
structures. That is what we
mean by a dynamic memory.
Understanding new
knowledge depends on
the perspective
of old knowledge.
But as the older
generation leaves,
corporate memory will
require a dynamic KM
system based on the
human model.
All this depends on
detailed information, like
scripts, that describe the
processes in a situation. This
means that, at least for quiet
some time, we cannot create
generalized KM systems that
work for every enterprise in
every industry.
Knowledge of situations is
the backbone of intelligence.
You don’t ask a novice to
captain a ship, nor do you ask
a new salesman to handle
your biggest account.
Organizations are highly
knowledgeable about the
processes that they are
regularly involved in. They
can define what a ship’s
captain does and what a
salesman does.
They can relate their
experiences of selling into a
particular company or dealing
with a particular client or
prospect.
People understand new
knowledge in terms of what
they already know. Existing
knowledge can be used to
make sense of incoming
knowledge.
A lot of knowledge in
an enterprise can be used
to organize new knowledge
coming in. A smart KM
system must know a lot
about the enterprise and the
industry. This is hard but by
no means impossible. And
it is the future of software
– specifically, software that
really understands the
business.
Simply put, any business
could use someone who
knew about every job, every
person, and every experience
CREATING
the company had had in the past as well as
its goals and plans going forward, and could
apply all that knowledge to new information.
The corporate ‘senior citizen’ used to exist,
and can exist again. Only this time he will be
a computer equipped with a very new kind of
KM system: one that is not about document
retrieval but about delivering just-in-time
advice.
Roger Schank, PhD, is CEO and president of
Socratic Arts, a company devoted to making e-
learning affordable, www.socraticarts.com; Dimitri
Lyras is CEO of Ulysses, www.ulysses-systems.com
Revolutionizing the
educational system
When people hear that Roger Schank is retired,
they think he is . . .well . . . retired.
True, he was a professor at Stanford, Yale
and Northwestern for some 35 years.
He started young and retired from that life
in order to live in a more peaceful environment,
to think and to see what he could do about
changing the world of education.
“I am disgusted by the education system
in this country,” he says. “I worry about a world
where originality and creativity seem almost
to be suppressed by the educational system
rather than encouraged by it.”
Schank has thought about thinking,
learning, memory, intelligent systems and
creativity all his life.
Almost 30 years ago he wrote a book
about human intelligence and how to get a
computer to be smart.
Then he wrote Dynamic Memory Revisited,
which is the same book only written from the
perspective of making people more intelligent.
His current projects include learning
games, revolutionizing the education system,
changing the world of intelligent enterprise
software, helping corporations improve their
training and innovation and making knowledge
management systems more like the human
brain.
Web site – www.engines4ed.org /
email: schank@engines4ed.org
SMART PEOPLE 31
WORKING
No ‘kidding here
WORKING Kidblogger is king of the young entrepreneurs
Hi, my name is Carl Ocab …
. . . the guy behind the
.com, or as many call me
the “Kidblogger.” I’m now
a 15-year-old kid from
the beautiful archipelago
Philippines.
Ok, wow. I’m a 15-year
old (started at 13) talking and
teaching people how to make
money online – there has been
a humongous controversy
around that so I decided to
write a, let’s say . . . brief look
at my past.
Here’s my story . . .
I got my first computer
at the age of four and got
involved in the Internet when
I was 10.
Playing online games,
chatting with friends,
networking, etc. I got so
addicted that I had to use
my own allowance to buy
an Internet prepaid card.
Dial up was the best because
broadband or cable Internet
wasn’t available yet.
32 SMART PEOPLE
There was a time when I
was online five hours straight!
My dad noticed me and asked
“What will you get from those
online games? You’ve been
playing that all that time.”
Thinking of a good reason,
I replied “Well uh, I’ll beat my
friends!” He then came back
with a joke: “That’s fine, all of
us need to enjoy life. But all
day? Those games are eating
your time and money. What
will you get in the long run?”
Of course we both
laughed, but that day
– while I was playing – our
conversation kept running
through my head, again and
again.
After a week, I got so
curious that I asked my dad
“What’s a better thing to
do? I know you stay on the
computer longer than me.” So
he introduced me to blogging
– blogging to make
money, that is.
For a kid, making
money on the net
sounded virtually
impossible – heck,
impossible even for
grown-ups!
So I kept on
listening, then came
AdSense, link building
and some minor SEO
techniques (Search
Engine Optimization,
for those who don’t
know).
A month after that, I
was on my own making
some blogs at blogspot with
aggregated content and big
AdSense ads on it. Made
some quick cash but it wasn’t
enough to keep me from what
I was doing – playing games
– so I stopped.
Then came a new hobby
– music. I joined a band in
our school, played a couple of
times but then that too didn’t
work out. So there I was back
again with online gaming.
Yes, you guessed it. A few
months after that I was back
on Internet marketing again.
This time when I tried it I
started to take it seriously.
I asked help from my dad
to set up a domain and got
my first blog/forum website.
It was about the online game I
was playing. He guided me a
bit but the work was up to me.
I created original content, did
a little promotion and a dash
of SEO.
Since then I started
seeing real bucks coming in.
I developed a system and
duplicated what I have done
and started seeing more and
more money each day.
Why you should listen to me
First things first. Let’s start
with the achievements of my
blog. Although, let’s make it
unique this time – I’ll break
the long paragraphs and
bullet point it all. Cool?
n I’m number one in Google
for the keyword “Make
Money Online” after
only seven months of
optimization – and I’m
holding that position since
then;
n I’ve been featured in our
national newspaper twice;
n I’ve talked and got
featured by some of

the top notch Internet
marketers in the category
like Joel Christopher,
Jack Humphrey, Rosalind
Gardner, Nick Marks and
many more;
n Almost all of my
advertisements are sold
out, leaving me four
figures monthly.
Talking about experience.
I entered the Internet
marketing world a year
and a half ago and I must
say, my mind is bursting
with rock solid
information.
You see,
when you’re
online
things are
going so fast.
Really fast. With
a quick search,
you can learn how
your grandma
makes those special
brownies she gives you
every Christmas.
Or you can do your
school report in less than five
minutes – that could take
hours for someone in the
library! With that said, I guess
you will agree with me that
a year offline is equivalent to
seven or more years online.
But as my favorite
speaker/master of strategic
change/negotiation expert/
all-around nice guy Anthony
Robbins puts it:
“You see, in life, lots of
people know what to do,
but few people actually do
what they know. Knowing is
not enough! You must take
action.”
Make money online
with a 13 year old
Carl Ocab dot com wasn’t
the ol’ “Make money online
with a 13-year old” blog at the
beginning. My first try was a
tech blog (I generated 30 posts
then, it’s funny why I deleted
them all, heh). Although I
love tech so much, I wasn’t
too inspired to blog about it.
My quest at niche hunting
started once again. I started
blogging about gossip news,
health and so much more –
and once again it didn’t work
for me.
I surfed,
searched
and
thought.
While I
was on
my
daily
routine, I
stumbled upon
a “Make money
online” blog. It
had these big banners on the
site that said “Advertise here
for X$ a month..”
Man, I was saying on
my head “Wow, that single
banner makes more than my
ol’ forum.” And that gave
me the idea to relaunch Carl
Ocab dot com with the main
goal to share my experiences
and results on my journey to
making money online.
The name was a tricky
one, “Make money online
with a 13-year-old” didn’t just
come out of nowhere. My dad
and I had to think about it for
weeks.
As a marketer himself, my
dad tried to look for a unique
side of my blog that would
draw curiosity and would
make my blog stand out from
all the others because the
WORKING
“Make money online” niche
was so saturated.
So why it’s still 13?
Many have asked me
“Carl, you’re already 15; why
don’t you change that tag line
of yours?” My dad and I have
debated this for a long time.
I haven’t changed it
because the blog’s title became
my title. When you say “Make
Money Online with a 13-
year-old,” people say that’s
Carl Ocab! Changing it to 15
would mess up my brand and
the whole thing, so to play it
safe, we have agreed (my dad
and I) to keep the 13-year-old
title.
OK, Wow. Hurry to Carl’s website
[www.carlocab.com], but hold
on to your wallet! The blog isn’t
his only enterprise now. You
can hire him as a consultant at
RichKidMedia Internet Services,
http://richkidmedia.com/
Download the KidBlogger’s Master
Plan lite[www.carlocab.com] for free.
The detailed plan is in the works. Carl
Ocab begins his Master Plan by saying
he’s tired of hearing statements like:
• “Start a blog.”
• “Fresh content.”
• “Blog about your passion.”
• “Post frequently.”
• “Blog now, monetize later.”
• “Wait until you build readership.”
“I’m tired of seeing people who
blog for money and who follow those
recycled tips from the so-called ‘gurus’,”
he says.
SMART PEOPLE 33
WORKING
Create a better place to work
Become an employer of choice
By Richard Hadden
and Bill Catlette
The number one complaint
from employees in the
trenches is that, in some
places, management does a
pretty good job of talking
about the need for good
leadership, but far too
seldom do they move
from inspiration to
execution.
Here are six ideas
you can turn into
actions now:
n Conduct a
morale survey:
Regularly (and
formally) assess
employee
attitudes, morale
and perceptions
of the work
environment
through the
use of a survey.
Feed the results
back to everyone
(as in everyone)
within one month.
Use the data to
manage, measure
and reshape the
organization’s strategic
people priorities.
n Analyze hiring
performance: On the premise
that great places to work
start with great people, start
measuring, managing and
rewarding each manager’s
hiring performance over time.
This is part of your business
34 SMART PEOPLE
metrics isn’t it? Make a portion
of a manager’s bonus potential
(25 percent recommended)
tied to quality of hiring.
n Evaluate training
feedback: The next time an
employee attends any kind
of training, ask him ahead
of time to be prepared to
tell you three new concepts
or skills he or she learned
from it, and one thing he will
begin doing differently as a
result. Don’t approach it like
a grilling, but emphasize the
need to transform learning
into performance, and your
desire to support him in his
development.
n Show employees the
fruits of their labor: Find
a meaningful way to show
people how the product they
make, service they support
or work they do is actually
used – and enjoyed – by your
customers. As an example, one
company commonly meets
this challenge with field trips.
Yes, field trips, like when you
were in school. Because they
manufacture highly technical
medical supplies – tubes,
valves, etc. – the work is
tedious, painstaking and, well,
occasionally boring.
n Investigate effectiveness
of internal communications:
You undoubtedly spend tons
of money on internal corporate
communications. Here’s a little
pop quiz you can use to see if
they are working: Ask the next
10 employees you bump into
to write down the company’s
top three business priorities. If
the answers are all exactly the
same, congratulations! If they
aren’t, you had better get busy
– as former NFL head coach
Jimmy Johnson once put it,
“Confused players aren’t very
aggressive.”
n Sit on the footlocker:
Get in the trenches with
your employees, because
good leadership is involved
leadership. Major General
Melvin Zais, commander of
the 101st Airborne Division in
Viet Nam, circa 1968, once said
in a speech to future officers,
“If you’ll get out of your warm
house and go down to the
barracks . . . and just sit on the
footlocker . . . you don’t have
to tell ‘em they’re doing a great
job. Just sit on the footlocker
and talk to one or two soldiers
and leave. They’ll know that
you know that they’re working
hard to make you look good.”
Now you know six of
many quick and easy ways
to let your employees know
they’re important to you.
Bill Catlette and Richard
Hadden founded Contented
Cow Partners, LLC to help
business and organization leaders
produce better results through
a focused, fired-up and capably
led workforce. They’ve authored
two books; the recently released,
Contented Cows MOOve
Faster and Contented Cows
Give Better Milk. Web site:
http://www.contentedcows.
com/

Follow the Leader 
British agency addresses workplace stress due to economy
The professional body
representing those involved
in the management and
development of people in
the UK to improve how
they manage stress at work
has urged organizations to
improve stress management
especially during the
economic downturn.
It is advice that could
well be heeded by employers
worldwide.
The notices by the
Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development
(CIPD) came after a similar
warning was issued by the
Health and Safety Executive
body (NHS) gave a regulatory
improvement notice for stress.
Details of the
improvement notice against
United Lincolnshire Hospitals
NHS Trust – only the second
ever issued for work-related
stress – were revealed in People
Management magazine at
http://tinyurl.com/lp7pn9.
Ben Willmott, senior
public policy adviser for the
CIPD, says the improvement
notice shows that the HSE
will not shy away from taking
action when employers fail to
meet their stress management
obligations under health and
safety law.
“Stress at work is likely to
become a growing challenge
for employers as the recession
takes hold,” he said.
“Employees are under
increasing pressure as work
intensity increases and worries
over job security grow. It is in
employers’ interests to take
action by using staff surveys
WORKING
to identify potential problems, stress with updated advice and
training line managers to resources – www.hse.gov.uk/
manage people properly and stress.
by ensuring there is access to These include the tools
occupational health services.” employers need to prevent stress
“Stress,” he said, “is a
major cause of employee
absence and conflict at work
and will undermine morale
and productivity. Long-term
exposure to stress is linked to
conditions such as anxiety and
depression, as well as heart
disease.”
The CIPD has just
published Building the Business
Case for Managing Stress, a
guide which sets out the
costs to organizations and
individuals of failing to take
action and the responses
needed by employers to
manage stress at work
effectively.
Download at http://tinyurl.
com/ktkkun. at work, a new competency
The Health and Safety questionnaire for line managers
Executive is launching a new and examples of what worked
Web site on work-related well for other organizations.
Reader dialogue: http://tinyurl.com/n5avoh
Unmanaging knowledge with Charles (Kalev) Ehin
This article beautifully synthesizes what I have long believed – valuable and innovative
work can only be accomplished through personal commitment in an environment of open
knowledge sharing and trust. In my high-tech career I often saw people struggling to
work together to improve something, or to create something new, in spite of the weight
of organization structure. Now as a career development coach, when I ask people what
keeps them in frustrating jobs, they often tell me that they don’t want to let their colleagues
down. Charles Ehin is so right when he says the “sweet spot” can’t be managed, but what
must be managed is the organizational context. I look forward to reading his book.
~ Kathleen Marvin
Smart People magazine is a new media publication. Kathleen and others are engaged in
what makes ‘new media’ new – two way conversation with the author, the publisher and
other readers. Go to the html version of the magazine to get involved.
SMART PEOPLE 35
WORKING

This is Generalist or specialist?

a fast-
changing Neither! The winner in the new world is a versatilist
world, so By Donald Latumahina
the best
Which one is better, being a specialist or generalist? Well, maybe not either of them. Instead, the
people better choice is being a versatilist.
are those Specialists usuall y have deep skills and narrow scope, giving them expertise that is
who can recognized by peers but seldom valued outside their immediate domain.
In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman noted generalists have broad scope
quickly and shallow skills which enable them to respond or act reasonably but they don’t often earn
adapt confidence.
Versatilists, on the other hand, apply a depth of skill to a much wider scope of situations and
and take experiences which gains new competencies, builds relationships and opens doors.
advantage Friedman added that “versatilists are capable not only of constantly adapting but also
of the new of constantly learning and growing” and that they are more like “Swiss Army knives” than
“specialty tools.”
waves. I totally agree.
In a rapidly changing world, we can see there are actually two things versatilists do:
n First, they recognize that a new wave is coming before anybody else, and
n Second, they adapt themselves quickly to seize the opportunities of the new wave.
To see the new wave coming, we need something I call an anticipation engine. To adapt
ourselves we need something I call a learning engine. So, if we are to be a versatilist, we need to
focus on building these two engines.
Somehow, it matches very well with what I believe to be the
most important skill: the ability to choose what to learn and to
Related thoughts learn quickly.
The anticipation engine deals with the first part of the skill,
Follow your heart; do your best that is “the ability to choose what to learn,” while the learning
Everyone wants to have a fulfilling engine deals with the second part, that is “to learn the skills
quickly.” If we have a good anticipation engine, we will know
career. But what do you think you need to
what the next wave is and where the opportunities lie.
have it? While there So be a versatilist? Focus on building your anticipation and
are many possible learning engines.
answers, in my Generalists and specialists may learn too. But without the
opinion there are at versatilist’s vision and strategy, they won’t succeed.
least two things you Neither will versatilists succeed if all they have is
should have. anticipation and learning. What separates the versatilists
from the others is seizing of the right opportunities of the
First, you should new wave and applying new skills that are required for new
follow your heart. responsibilities, such as communication and conflict resolution.
Following your heart means working At the same time, specialists and generalists may also become
on something that matters to you. It’s better at communication and conflict, but they won’t have
something that you do not because of the broad view and critical knowledge to match an updated
money, but because of love and care. professional to a new wave opportunity.
Second, you should live your fullest Donald Latumahina is founder and content creator of Life Optimizer – www.
potential. It’s not enough just to do what lifeoptimizer.org, a personal development site with 3000+ subscribers and
matters to you. You have to make a tens of thousands of visitors per month. His mission is to help as many people
difference. as possible live the fullest of life.

36 SMART PEOPLE

Process and systems
Build it and they will come? No. Engage the user.
By Jerry Ash
ex·plic·it adj. Fully and
clearly expressed; leaving
nothing implied.
tac·it adj. Not spoken:
Implied by or inferred from
actions or statements
These words – tacit and explicit
– are part of the knowledge
management lingo and they were
useful in judging the content of
the recent annual gathering of
corporate knowledge wonks at the
14th annual KM Conference hosted
by the American Productivity
and Quality Center (APQC) in
Houston, Texas, US.
The explicit theme of the
conference was the The Knowledge
Transfer Revolution, which
focused largely on systems and
process.
But hidden beneath was the
purpose for knowledge transfer
architectures – the tacit knowledge
held by ordinary smart people.
APQC’s membership is made
up largely of leaders who are
engaged in building knowledge
management infrastructures for
their organizations. Thus, the talk
was about process and systems,
with the purpose – activating
human knowledge – understood,
but not often mentioned –
explicitly, that is.
The tacit knowledge between
the lines is awesome. Especially
the knowledge that so many major
enterprises understand the value
of knowledge and are willing to
invest so heavily in accessing and
using it.
The presenters offered an array
of solutions and success stories
with an occasional nod to the goal
of tapping the knowledge of smart
people, but one presenter stepped
over the line to talk about actually
engaging the target – smart people
– in designing the infrastructure.
Steve Trautman, principal of
Practical Leader, a peer mentoring
consultancy, talked about what’s
being said about “kids these days
….” Like:
n “Have the attention span of a
flea”;
n “Are always connected to
others but not listening to me”;
n “Don’t know how to work
hard”;
n “Wouldn’t consider paying
their dues”;
n “Need to be praised all the
time”;
n “Quit and move on before they
even get finished being new”;
n “Have problems with
authority.”
Then he talked about what
“these kids” are saying:
n “They said I should just
‘shadow’ a co-worker. What
does that actually mean?”;
n “I am often done by 11 a.m.
and they don’t have anything
else for me to do”;
WORKING
n I know some guys don’t like
IM or texting, but I haven’t
figured out what the do like;
n “I went to the meeting but
couldn’t see my role in how it
all fits together”;
n “There seem to be a lot of
unwritten rules around here.
I’m always stepping on toes”;
n “Friends from college are doing
really cool stuff and I’m here
‘sweeping the floor’.”
Yes, there have been billions
spent on process and systems,
but many have failed because the
architects either did not know
their employee/customer or they
suffered from misconceptions.
One of APQC’s proposed
research projects of the future:
Engaging Knowledge Workers.
Attendees were surveyed.
“What techniques are leading
organizations using to ensure
that the ‘what’s in it for me’ for
knowledge workers are being
addressed, especially in view
of the social networking tools
available now and in the future?”
Engaging workers scored
second highest. Initial plans for
a consortium on Sustaining Vital
Communities include the worker
topic.
Participate in another survey to help
frame the agenda for the Sustaining
CoPs consortium: http://tinyurl.com/
lo6udg
SMART PEOPLE 37
WORKING
Passionate professionals
Getting to really, really know a mix and match network
By Elmine Wijnia
There’s something about the
people that I’ve surrounded
myself with the last few years
and I want to figure out what
that is.
Therefore I created a
research project to put them
in front of a camera and
interview them. I want to
portray these fascinating
individuals and tell the story
– in a documentary – of their
approach to work.
It’s been five years since
I left university to play my
part in the world of earning
a living. Since finishing my
Elmine Wijnia masters’ I have been busy
transforming myself from a
student, a role that I knew
so well, into a freelancer and
consultant, a role that took
time to grow into. In my work
I apply the knowledge from
38 SMART PEOPLE
my thesis on blogging in the playfulness, the unorthodox
context of my clients and help decisions they make, their
individuals to get up to speed enthusiasm, their intelligence
with the possibilities of social and because of their deep
media. thinking.
Back at
university, The people seem to have at least one
working on
my thesis, I
thing in common. They act like pros.
started a blog What they do is an integral part of
as a public their identity.
thinking
pad, hoping
to be able to connect to Some of them left highly
the odd ‘Other’ that was regarded jobs and now work
also knowledgeable on independently. Others work
blogging or Habermas, a for companies that give them
German philospher whose freedom to explore what
communicative theory I tested they’re passionate about and
in relation to some even thrive within the
blogs. politicized structures of big
People global companies.
researching They travel a lot, often to
Habermas speak at conferences. They
turned up share their thoughts and
only after I visions online in blogs, connect
finished my to colleagues through whatever
own research, online service is at hand. They
but there form little communities of
were plenty co-workers, and sometimes
of people share an office to battle the
writing and issues that rise from working at
thinking about home.
blogging as a They work together on
phenomenon. projects even though they
Through live thousands of miles apart.
the blogosphere They organize conferences and
I connected workshops for their peers.
to an unusual The people I interact with
bunch of seem to have at least one thing
people. Not in common. They act like
pros. Like the professional
only online, but also face-to-
face – through conferences sports player, they take their
and self-organized workshops, work very seriously. What
dinner parties, lunch they do is an integral part of
meetings, even birthday their identity. They approach
parties. I feel at home among whatever it is they do with an
these people because of their ethos of ‘my work is life and
my life is work’. They don’t
have fixed demarcations
between ‘job’ and ‘private life’
and fill their waking hours
balancing work, traveling,
writing and their family as
needed.
Their attitude toward
work is in such contrast to the
people you sometimes meet
and hear about – people who
are only interested in saving
up for their life after 63, who
start counting their days
towards retirement when
they’re 45. Their work seems
to be a burden, and the only
reason they keep doing it is
that it pays for the bills.
Why is it that the people
I’ve surrounded myself with
are such strong owners of
their own lives? Feel such
responsibility for the work
they do? Don’t care how much
time it costs, or how much
money they can make, as long
as they like doing it?
Likes attract. “It’s not a real surprise that I
connected to these strong-willed, keen,
pro-active and passionate people.”
It’s not a real surprise that
I connected to these strong-
willed, keen, pro-active and
passionate people. I suspect
others would come up with
some of these words when
describing me.
I’m one of those
independent spirits, following
their passion wherever it
leads them. It started with
designing my own Master’s
curriculum, skipping
scheduled courses and doing
my own literature study to
graduate as a communication
philospher instead of
communication scientist. After
getting my masters degree
I tried searching for a job,
but got frustrated by merely
reading the job descriptions.
Back in 2004 the only jobs in
communication were part-
time (totally suitable for the
working mom) and focused on
traditional marketing.
No one was waiting for
a headstrong recent graduate
who couldn’t wait to introduce
them in to the world of social
media, based on philosophical
grounds. Reason enough
for me to say farewell to
the standard career path as
followed by most others and
stand on my own two feet (and
sink deep into the mud at first).
During my university
years I experienced a severe
depression. I worked my way
out of it through therapy. I
know for certain that this is
one of the main reasons why
I’m so strong-minded and
dare to cut loose from certain
conventions. I’m curious what
the story of people in my
network will be. Are there
turning points or key events in
their lives that made them who
they are? Why is their passion
so tangible? How come they
seem to really own their lives,
where others do not?
To satisfy my curiousity
I started this research project
to find out the stories of these
passionate professsionals.
Using ethnographic methods,
I want to observe this
interesting group of people
that I’m part of. What drives
them, what turns them on,
Research project will observe
these interesting people for a
documentary on the passion that
drives them and how they balance
life and work.
how much time do they
actually spend on their
activities, how does the
internet support them and
how do they make sure they
earn enough for food and
a roof over their (and their
families) heads?
I want to portray them
in a documentary. It is a great
way to have good and deep
conversations with the people
I know, and to get to know
them even better. The story of
the passionate professionals’
approach to work will emerge
from the interviews I do and
the data I will collect.
I’m not trained in making
documentaries, but I trust the Elmine
diversity of my network to Wijnia is an
be able to learn the necessary independent
skills along the way. I’ve entrepreneur
written a project plan, started in the
publishing video-updates Netherlands.
on my progress and done Her company,
my first interview. So far I’ve Skallagrigg,
been working on it without a helps others
budget, but since this could get up to
easily be a two-year project, speed with
working full-time, I’m still social media.
figuring out how I can finance Web site in
it. English: http://
I can only guess what the elmine.wijnia.
end-result will be. One thing com/weblog/
I know for sure is that I like In Dutch:
doing it and therefore I just http://helpme.
do it. I’m just as passionate as skallagrigg.
those I’m studying. net/
SMART PEOPLE 39
KNOWLEDGE FACTOR
KM Six Pack #2
THE K FACTOR KM helps people, companies attain critical success factors
This is the second in a series of six articles introducing newly engaged employees and
managers to the basics of knowledge-based enterprise.
When knowledge management
became a hot topic in the
1990s, management assumed
the purpose of KM was to
capture the human knowledge
asset – that which was held in
people’s heads.
Intellectual capital was
not a new idea, but most
companies either didn’t see
it valuable enough to try to
manage, or thought of it as
something to be converted
into property to be owned and
stashed away in the company
safe.
To add to the company
treasure chest, systems were
set in motion to mine human
knowledge and convert it
to data, transforming an
intangible resource held
by people into tangible
documents owned by the
company.
The approach was
laughable. It is impossible to
capture even a fraction of one
percent of what one person
knows, let alone an entire
workforce.
Think about it. What if
you were asked to write down
everything you know – a
complete inventory? If you
gave it monk-like devotion you
would not complete the work
before you died . . . regardless
of your age. The human mind
is an incredible storehouse and
in most cases you don’t know
what you know until you recall
it – when you need to use it.
That brand of KM
rarely worked. If anything,
40 SMART PEOPLE
it drove people to hoard
more knowledge in the
hope it would make them
indispensable, a strategy
which did not work during
downsizing when the older,
more knowledgeable, more
valuable (i.e., expensive)
workers lost their jobs.
And, the knowledge that
was stored in document form
was not, in itself, a company
treasure because knowledge –
like information – has no value
until it is put to use. Worse,
the shelf life of knowledge is
very short in an era of constant
change.
The latest generation of
knowledge strategy focuses on
KM as a process – a change in
the way we work. The purpose
remains the enhancement of
the critical success factors of
an organization, but added
is the intellectual growth of
people whose careers depend
on personal success in multiple
jobs.
In the new approach,
people don’t just give
up what they know but
exchange knowledge through
collaborative work. In a
group setting, walk away
with more knowledge than
you brought. The result is a
growth of common knowledge
for the organization and the
individual.
Thus, corporate knowledge
loss is not so severely impacted
by turnover and departing
individuals are better
equipped to compete on the
knowledge market. And yes
indeed, there is a knowledge
market.
But what is knowledge
worth in the market? And how
do you measure it? Knowledge
by itself has no measurable
value, but knowledge as a
process does.
Robert H. Buckman,
retired CEO of Buckman
Laboratories, Tennessee, US,
framed the measurement of
KM in its simplest terms by
connecting his pioneering
KM program to his company’s
record of bringing new
products to market. He
tracked the implementation
of KM programs to product
introduction just as research
and development, marketing
and sales programs have been
measured by their impact.
Tying KM to critical
success factors is as simple as
connecting it to the company’s
strategic plan or goals and
objectives of divisions,
departments, units, work
groups or projects. KM then
enhances both the corporate
mission and the value of
people who help carry out that
mission.
Next up – Technology: Not
a solution, but an essential
support system.
KM Six Pack #1 can be found
in the May issue [www.
smartpeoplemagazine.com].
Subscribe now to get the
remaining four articles from the
viewpoint of KM technology,
company, people and networks.
 Once upon
a time
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