Tools for Dialogue and Deliberation on Wicked Problems

The natural order of things

I can't think of a single instance where dealing with a task in the field allowed me opportunity to use a deprecated method.

On the other hand I can think of a number of times when someone with superior rank / status / standing made declarations for action that were entirely inappropriate ... and entirely ignored.

At the risk of yet.again being cryptic: the society that doesn't acknowledge the social dynamics of innovation is bound for catastrophe.

Tactic without strategy is the slow road to success; strategy without tactic is the sure road to calamity.

We also serve who again and yet again pace, and review, and pace ... and review.

p.s. Looking for something on which to impose Apture I came across something written 5 years ago: http://bentrem.sycks.net/gnodal/overview.html ... I can't help feeling it's been 5 years wasted.

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Comment by Andy Streich on November 13, 2008 at 2:26: Why 5 years wasted?

Comment by Ben Tremblay on November 13, 2008 at 2:52: Haven't barely moved ... "can't help feeling" is over-stated; I've busied myself with peripheral aspects, but the core design came through clearly on the December evening in the stacks of Dalhousie University. Since then one variant or another of thumb twiddling.

(Fortunately I've mastered my addictive personality so neither WoW nor SL have taken over. Not just kidding! *grin*)

Such as http://bentrem.sycks.net/wiki/index.php?title=Obama ... through that sort of thing together just to keep my hands busy ... basically secretarial ...

Comment by Andy Streich on November 13, 2008 at 4:37: "We also serve who again and yet again pace, and review, and pace ... and review."

That's a profound and under appreciated sentiment. Just like QA throughout the software world has similarly struggled to get the attention it deserves.

Anyway, I'd love to see some of your core design ideas.

Comment by Ben Tremblay on November 13, 2008 at 4:51: Yisss mahn, Q&A types and I got along very well indeed! (Thinking about a blog post on the virtues of industry experience I was tempted to "How well do you read?", remembering sitting down and going through a 250 page tech_manual in a day ... backwards, a trick that ensures you don't get caught up by narrative flow. Painful ... truly painful.)

It's a very Zen situation: academics (consciously or not) look upon me as a pretender, practitioners (somewhat more explicitly!) see me as merely impractical.

If OpenSource were a bit more pragmatic I could release /something/ without losing my IP. As things stand *shrug* I spend a large part of my time trolling for an agile company that has at once an eye to the future and a profound civic conviction.

Folk are so busy ... I can understand why they're distracted.
So I keep going, but I can't say I'm optimistic. (Couldn't help noticing that the Cohere team is hiring ... salary of between $55K and $80K ... nice!)

Comment by Andy Streich on November 17, 2008 at 18:43: "I spend a large part of my time trolling for an agile company that has at once an eye to the future and a profound civic conviction."

Me too. Not having found one, I'm looking to create the business I wish to be a part of. Long row to hoe. In the meantime I'm also fishing for a worthwhile non-profit organization that can use my skills.

Comment by Ben Tremblay on November 17, 2008 at 22:59: I've been in that "fishing" roll since I left SigInt in '73! And no, I'm not just kidding. Reason I studied social-psych formally was because of what I saw in the dynamics of non-profits/progressives ... and I don't mean sterling virtues.
My hope had been to find someone open and then earn my salt with hack work while developing the new generation of interactivity. Heck, in '97 I was writing about what's in effect now spoken about as Web2.0 ... the oligarchs truly do profit by throttling innovation.

cheers

p.s. Sidebar: did you get my email re:GloSem blog? I CCd you an exchange between David and I.