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Thu, Sep 28, 2006

HyperScope Talk at SHIFT in Portugal    #

DougEngelbart and I gave a surprise remote talk at SHIFT this morning from his offices in Fremont to the conference in Portugal via video Skype. ThomasMadsenMygdal took this picture while Doug was talking. Here's how it looked from my point of view:    (L9F)

   (L9G)

At the end of our talk, BeverlyTrayner asked a question that I'm not sure I answered adequately. She asked about the relevance of these advanced capabilities when so much of the world doesn't have access to computers or the Internet.    (L9H)

If you can make one group of people more effective, and if that group's productivity has a positive effect on the world at large, then your influence has extended well beyond that group. My example for this was Wikipedia. Many developing countries don't have widespread access to computers or the Internet (although OneLaptopPerChild will change this). Nevertheless, Wikipedia is improving their lives by making it cheap and easy to publish high-quality textbooks that can be distributed in book form. Wikis allowed Wikipedia to happen, which in turn is affecting far more people in the world than those who have access to Wikis.    (L9I)

SHIFT looks like it was very cool. Many thanks to PedroCustodio for inviting us to speak. Hopefully next year, we can attend for real.    (L9J)

/talks | Posted at 4:09pm

On The Clock Goofiness    #

At the workshop earlier this week, one woman raised concerns over whether blogging about one's personal life at work could be considered wasting tax payer's money. This question isn't just limited to the government. Many companies ask similar questions about similar tools. For example, a lot of companies were reluctant to adopt IM, because they were afraid that employees would spend all their time gabbing online.    (L93)

There are three problems with this kind of thinking. First, if you're going to waste time gabbing at work, you don't need IM. You've got water coolers, cubicles, copiers, lobbies, and lunchrooms. Options for wasting time abound.    (L94)

Second, banning a tool prevents you from using it for good or for ill. You have to be rigorous in measuring tradeoffs. In the case of IM, which had legitimate business uses, people's response to not having access to it was to download freely available software and route around the company firewall.    (L95)

Third, Taylorism is so 1911. We are people, not machines, and people sometimes need to do things like call home from work (which up until relatively recently, government employees were not allowed to do). In fact, encouraging people to feel human can even be productive! Imagine that!    (L96)

This issue came up in response to an observation I made about the importance of play. Play is critical for effective learning, and yet, it can be hard to justify play, especially to the outside world, when your job is to protect national security.    (L97)

MarkOehlert had a wonderful response to this. There are apparently two words for "play" in German. (I know one is "Spiel." Can someone tell me the other?) One meaning of "play" describes the looseness that allows a wheel to turn. If there isn't enough play, the wheel won't turn. This latter meaning of play can be easier to rationalize in the workplace.    (L98)

We panelists were slightly guilty of playing on the job. The BackChannel (strictly classified) had me cracking up more than once during the discussion. (Did you know that DavidWeinberger used to write for WoodyAllen?) And while this was not a classified event, they asked us not to take pictures of people. This is how we chose to comply:    (L99)

   (L9A)

(Photos courtesy of JayCross. Clay, we're missing you. Please correct this!)    (L9B)

By the way, I agree with everything Marcia says.    (L9C)

/collaboration | Posted at 3:42pm

Wed, Sep 27, 2006

Intellipedia Shovel    #

After the workshop yesterday, the CIA presented me with a shovel. That's right, a shovel.    (L8Y)

   (L8Z)

The shovel was inspired by MeatballWiki's BarnStar (which is also used by Wikipedia). It is an honor that people bestow on others for gardening Intellipedia, and it exists in both virtual and physical form. It's a wonderful example of SpotlightOnOthers.    (L90)

I am the first person outside of the intelligence community to have ever received one of these shovels, and I consider it a tremendous honor. Of course, I shamelessly and unapologetically cajoled them into giving me one, but as my momma used to say, you won't get it if you don't ask for it. I plan on showing it off every chance I get.    (L91)

/collaboration/patterns | Posted at 11:50pm

The Future of Intelligence, Part 2    #

In my last post, I wrote:    (L8D)

First things first, though. For the past two days, I and several esteemed colleagues participated in a CIA workshop on blogs and Wikis, organized by MarkOehlert at BoozAllenHamilton. The intention was for people within the CIA to learn more about blogs and Wikis from us, but the learning was decidedly bidirectional. We got a glimpse of how the intelligence community works, and we got a chance to further guide the CIA's thinking on how to improve the way it collaborates, both internally and with others.    (L8F)

I spent both days listening closely for patterns of effective collaboration. Given my previous experience with government work, I wasn't optimistic. These folks surprised me. There were certainly horror stories, but they weren't significantly worse than stories I have heard and experienced in other organizations. More importantly, there is a small group of vocal, committed champions who believe strongly in how some of these tools can improve the way the organization works and who are actively trying to make this happen.    (L8G)

One problem I often see in organizations are claims that certain silos are necessary, claims that tend to be unfounded. Well, these claims are mostly true in intelligence. Given this constraint, how is effective collaboration possible? How can you build trust and traceability when there are different levels of classified information and when anonymity is critical and necessary? How can you have a conversation with someone who doesn't exist, as far as the CIA is concerned?    (L8H)

We can divide these challenges into three areas: collaboration with folks within the organization who share the same security clearance, collaboration with folks in other organizations who share the same security clearance, and collaboration with folks on the outside who do not share the same security clearance. The first two scenarios are relatively straightforward to address. The third is incredibly difficult.    (L8I)

The notion of an IntimacyGradient came up on multiple occasions. An IntimacyGradient is an important concept in the design of collaborative spaces (both online and face-to-face), but it is a concept rife with problems when implemented online. You can create an online space where people feel comfortable sharing information and leaving artifacts, but that comfort can be completely misguided when it comes to digital artifacts. Blogs are a good example of this. Blogs feel like private spaces, and so people share information on them as if they were private, information that can bite you in the butt later on. (See WhineInPrivate?.)    (L8J)

A more subtle example is the Wikipedia visualization that FernandaViegas and MartinWattenberg demonstrated at WikiMania last month. The two were able to show all sorts of personal information about users inferred solely from their editing behavior, which is all publically available. I'm quite certain that none of these users had any idea that such revealing visualizations were possible, and that many would have thought twice about participating if those visualizations were available. Viegas and Wattenberg have been struggling with the ethics of making such visualizations available because of privacy concerns, but the reality is that someone less thoughtful can come along and do the exact same thing.    (L8K)

The intelligence community can't afford to deal with these issues after the fact, so they must think very deeply about these issues ahead of time. The line between FUD and caution is a thin one, and it must be tread carefully.    (L8L)

That said, there are still lots of more straightforward things that the CIA can do to improve the way it collaborates, and they're already exploring many of them. There are several active bloggers within the CIA, including several senior-level people. There is also a Wiki for the intelligence community called Intellipedia. Of the 40 participants at the workshop, more had used Intellipedia than blogs, and I suspect that many more will try it after the proceedings of the past two days. Change is happening, and many participants even argued that change was inevitable. Whether or not it will happen quickly enough is the question.    (L8M)

Although the focus of the gathering was on tools, the conversation returned over and over to culture and incentives for collaboration. Many of the ideas centered around ways to encourage blogging or Wikis, but most of these were misguided. I think rewarding people for using a tool is generally a bad idea. What you want to do is reward people for collaborating.    (L8N)

BoozAllenHamilton, for example, has an employee review process known as the 360-degree appraisal. When employees are reviewed, management not only interviews the employees, they interview their colleagues and their clients. The end result is a holistic picture of their employees' effectiveness. This kind of review process naturally rewards collaboration, even though there is no formal metric.    (L8O)

Another way to encourage collaboration is explicit PermissionToParticipate (one of the patterns that Wikis are so good at facilitating). It's wonderful when senior level people actively blog and encourage others to do so, but sometimes, PermissionToParticipate needs to be even more explicit than that.    (L8P)

It's hard to extrapolate too much about the state of the CIA from what happened at the workshop. For starters, the participants were obviously self-selecting. However, the fact that there were 40 people who self-selected was itself significant. There seems to be an impressive amount of savviness within the organization, and if it can ever figure out how to leverage that savviness, many good things will happen. The participants asked good, good questions throughout the two days, demonstrating a high-level of thoughtfulness and introspection.    (L8Q)

The most significant outcome for me was the opportunity to put a human face on the CIA. It's an opportunity that most people will never get, because the CIA will never be a transparent organization, and it will never be able to fully leverage the notion of MarketsAreConversations. But perhaps I and others can act as a proxy.    (L8R)

I enjoyed meeting many people, including CalvinAndrus and the team behind Intellipedia (who I hope will attend RecentChangesCamp in May so that they may experience WikiOhana firsthand). I especially appreciated the thoughtfulness of those who were present, which included both champions and skeptics. Most importantly, I appreciated people's hearts. The CIA point person for the workshop closed the gathering by remarking that the commonality between the guests and the participants was passion, then told an emotionally wrenching story about his son and about watching the plane crash into the Pentagon on 9/11. These folks are smart, they're human, and they care. They care about doing their jobs well, and they care about improving this country.    (L8S)

The CIA has had a checkered history, and many challenges lie ahead. Change will not be easy. But they are doing some things well, and we should continue to engage with them, so that we can continue to learn from each other and improve. I came away from this workshop more optimistic about the CIA itself, but less so regarding its relationship with other intelligence agencies and with its customers, the policy makers. But, first things first. Baby steps lead to big changes.    (L8T)

/collaboration | Posted at 11:44pm

The Future of Intelligence, Part 1    #

About six months after 9/11, I came across a book by GregoryTreverton, who served as the Vice Chair of the NationalIntelligenceCouncil under BillClinton. The book, Reshaping National Intelligence for the Age of Information, was published shortly before 9/11, and its insights into the state of national intelligence were both revealing and prescient. It's a remarkable book, and it got me thinking more deeply about the incredible cultural and organizational challenges of national intelligence. Not coincidentally, around the same time, I was starting to synthesize my ideas on collaboration, a process that resulted in my founding of BlueOxenAssociates.    (L7T)

Things are starting to come full circle. Over the past year, I've found myself engaged in conversation with a number of people in the intelligence community, and it culminated in a two day workshop with the CIA this past week. It's been somewhat of a surreal experience, given that I've spent much of the past four years working side-by-side with progressive and OpenSource activists, many of whom consider the government an antagonist at best, an enemy at worst. Moreover, my one previous brush with government work -- a project with the FAA -- left me with a less than favorable view of how our federal agencies work. The culture there is stifling, especially in comparison to the BayArea. There is a stated desire to learn and to improve, but there is very little real commitment. Those who actually want to do something are trapped under a blanket of repressive indifference, and those who manage to do something anyway are usually completely marginalized by their superiors and even their peers.    (L7U)

All that said, the fundamental challenges regarding intelligence are dear to my heart, and I find myself paying a bit more attention when these conversations and opportunities present themselves. I firmly believe that deep knowledge about collaboration is spread across a number of domains, and the only way to acquire this knowledge is to engage with each of those different communities. This especially holds true with intelligence, where the knowledge product itself is sensemaking and actionable knowledge.    (L7V)

I am also a patriot. That word has attained somewhat of a negative connotation over the past five years, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because it has forced us to deeply reexamine our values. I've gone through this process myself, and I've walked away even more sure of my feelings. I'd like to make both this country and the world a better place. Those two goals are not orthogonal.    (L7W)

Last year, I met DarnietJennings, an intelligence researcher, at WikiSym. We've had a number of interesting conversations since, and he participated in our first "Tools for Catalyzing Collaboration" workshop. About six months ago, he referred me to a paper written by CalvinAndrus entitled, "The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community." Andrus, who is with the CIA, wrote this paper last year, and it has since become the de facto reference on the role of SocialSoftware in intelligence.    (L7X)

I've found the majority of these kinds of whitepapers shallow and uninteresting. Andrus's paper is anything but. Rather than offer some simplistic portrayal of these tools while repeating the same tiresome anecdotes and misconceptions over why they're useful, Andrus frames the conversation in terms of systems theory. He cites LudwigVonBertalanffy and JaneJacobs, and he praises decentralization, localization, and emergence. The depth of his paper comes from this framing, which establishes the correct higher-level goals and philosophy behind these tools and which surfaces the intelligence community's real challenges. The paper has flaws, but they are minor.    (L7Y)

The fact that such a paper exists and that it has been embraced by the intelligence community makes me hopeful, but that hope is tempered by Treverton. Andrus writes about the importance of empowering local, bottoms-up action, and he cites TipONeill's famous maxim, "All politics is local politics." For those who might perceive of the intelligence community as being overly centralized, this seems to be a refreshing viewpoint.    (L7Z)

However, Treverton suggests that this view is not foreign to the intelligence community at all. In fact, he writes that "intelligence analysts tend toward the long view and to take the world as a given." Treverton then cites the very same O'Neill quote, writing, "Because they [intelligence analysts] are so immersed in the local, they are by profession believers in the adage attributed to former U.S. Congressman Tip O'Neill that 'all politics is local politics'" (181). In contrast, policy makers tend to care less about the long view. Transforming national intelligence is not enough. We need to transform the relationship between intelligence and policy.    (L80)

/collaboration | Posted at 11:28pm

Tue, Sep 26, 2006

Multi-Touch Screen    #

TristanNaramore referred me to a video clip of JeffHan's talk at TED earlier this year. Jeff demonstrated his multi-touch screen, which is incredibly cool. Unlike touch screens today, you can interact with the screen with multiple fingers simultaneously. It's also pressure sensitive. More importantly, according to Jeff, the technology is affordable.    (L7M)

One of my passions is integrating online tools into face-to-face environments. The problem is that computer interfaces obstruct physical collaboration. They discourage engagement with others who are present. The design challenge is understanding the tradeoffs. But the tradeoffs could disappear if only we had better physical interfaces. The multi-touch screen is a step in the right direction.    (L7N)

Watching the demo reminded me of another important HyperScope design point: Views of a document should have an address. With HyperScope, any view of a document is addressable. Similarly, with Google Maps, I can always generate a URL to a particular view of a map. JeffHan's geospatial demo was cool, but when the app is actually deployed, I hope the developers don't forget to make every view addressable.    (L7O)

/collaboration/tools | Posted at 10:26pm

Fri, Sep 22, 2006

Catalytic Communities Awarded Tech Museum Tech Laureate    #

Congratulations to TheresaWilliamson and CatalyticCommunities for winning a 2006 Tech Laureate award from TheTechMuseum in the Equality category! Besides starting an organization with a great name, Theresa is one of those folks who does really good work while thinking deeply about the big picture. She's one of those action-oriented, yet thoughtful do-gooders I love so much. Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. CatalyticCommunities was selected from a pool of 951 applicants from 58 different countries.    (L7D)

/forbenefit | Posted at 2:09pm

Thu, Sep 21, 2006

Socialtext 2.0 Released    #

Congratulations to RossMayfield, PeterKaminski, AdinaLevin, and all the excellent folks at SocialText for the release of SocialText 2.0. Even bigger props for slipping in "Purple Consulting" in the screencast. I've been cranking so hard over the past six months, I didn't have a chance to congratulate them on their OpenSource release last July, so now I get to combine my commentary here. (In fact, I'm sitting on a bunch of Wiki-related posts right now that I need to push out; a lot of really cool stuff has been happening.) That's good, because I have plenty to say.    (L72)

SocialText 2.0 is an important release for three reasons. First, it doesn't just look good, it's highly usable. Adina and Pete deserve big-time credit for this. They've spent months painstakingly experimenting and testing the design. More importantly, they haven't just focused on making it easy to use, but they've also agonized over how to accomodate expert usage as well.    (L73)

Have they succeeded? I think the personal home base concept is great. I love the fact that BackLinks are visible on the page and get lots of love. I love their new RecentChanges interface (and I hope to see a TagCloud? view of the all pages index in the next release). I hate the fact that a RecentChanges link is not on every Wiki page. Both Pete and Adina are well aware of this beef, and I'm also well aware of their reason for not including it. Testing and user observation will tell what's better.    (L74)

Second, SocialText 2.0 has a really cool REST interface. ChrisDent has been boasting about it for months, but I didn't look at it myself until KirstenJones walked me through it last week. (Her WikiWednesday presentation from earlier this month is online.) It really is cool, and it's also useful. Congrats to Chris, Kirsten, MatthewOConnor, and MattLiggett for their excellent work!    (L75)

What's great about this API is that it could very well serve as a standard URI scheme for all Wikis. This would obviate the need for a separate SOAP or Atom API. You just have a regular Web app, and you get the API behavior for free.    (L76)

For example, AlexSchroeder's currently going through the same process that Chris went through a year ago with Atom and OddMuse. An easier way around this problem would be to implement these REST APIs.    (L77)

(This is also a great opportunity for me to mention WikiOhana again, which gained great traction at WikiSym last month and which now has a lively Wiki of its own. PBWiki recently announced its own Wiki API, which is a good thing. We are all part of the same Wiki family. SocialText and PBWiki need to talk about how their two efforts can work together. That's the WikiOhana Way.)    (L78)

The third important thing about SocialText 2.0 is that it's OpenSource. (Big props to JonasLuster and AndyLester for finally making this happen.) Here's the thing. I think the announcement a few months back was overblown by a lot of blogosphere hype. The reality of all corporate OpenSource releases is that -- in and of themselves -- they're mostly meaningless. Mostly, but not completely. The fact that SocialText 2.0 is OpenSource means that other Wiki implementations can benefit from the great work that the SocialText developers have done, from the APIs to the user interface. That makes for a healthier ecosystem, which is good for everybody.    (L79)

That said, the reason the actual open sourcing of SocialText 2.0 (and any proprietary software project) is mostly meaningless is that the license is a critical, but tiny part of what makes OpenSource software interesting and important. The big part is the community and collaborative process, and a lot of other things besides an open license are required to make that successful.    (L7A)

Before SocialText went OpenSource, I spent many hours talking to a bunch of people there about the impending release. I wanted to know how committed they were to making this a truly open and collaborative software project, because I felt the potential impact on the Wiki community was enormous. The answer I got was complex. The fact that everyone was willing to talk to me with no strings attached, in and of itself, demonstrated a commitment to openness, and I'm still grateful for that. The code itself will be a short-term bottleneck, as it needs a lot of work before outside developers will find it compelling. I also think the licensing terms are weaker than they need to be, although I also understand the outside pressures that make it so.    (L7B)

In short, I think the spirit is strong within SocialText to fully realize the potential of this OpenSource project, but there are also roadblocks. Hopefully, external pressures won't squash that spirit. If SocialText ever fulfills its potential as an OpenSource company, it will not only help the ecosystem, but it will also tremendously benefit SocialText as a business.    (L7C)

/tech/wiki | Posted at 2:21pm

Tue, Sep 19, 2006

Yak Humor    #

At BlueOxenAssociates, we like puns and other PaulBunyan humor. Our main discussion lists are called "yak." This morning, PeterJones sent me this video clip of some yak humor.    (L6Q)

Yes, it's a trailer for Jackass 2. Yes, I thought it was funny. No, I am not 12 years old.    (L6R)

/blueoxen | Posted at 1:57pm

Mon, Sep 18, 2006

Video Interview at WikiSym 2006    #

MortenBlaabjerg, a Danish filmmaker, interviewed me at WikiSym last month and released the raw video under a CreativeCommons license. I uploaded a compressed version of the interview (54MB) to InternetArchive. The interview runs about 12 minutes and covers a range of topics: BlueOxenAssociates, WickedProblems, Wikis, and HyperScope. It's a pretty good snapshot of what's in my head these days.    (L6M)

/blueoxen | Posted at 6:58pm

HyperScope Talk at Planetwork    #

I'll be giving a brief presentation on HyperScope this Thursday at the Planetwork Forum, 6-9pm at Stanford University (450 Serra Mall, Building 460, Room 126). The event is free, and the other talks look great as well:    (L6D)

• KaliyaHamlin on user-centric identity.    (L6E)
• JohannesErnst on OSIS.    (L6F)
• LaurenGelman on Net Neutrality.    (L6G)

Please stop by if you're nearby!    (L6H)

Also, for those of you attending EuroOSCON, BradNeuberg will also be presenting this Thursday. His talk is entitled, "Douglas Engelbart's HyperScope: Taking Web Collaboration to the Next Level Using Ajax and Dojo."    (L6I)

/tech/hyperscope | Posted at 6:49pm

Thu, Sep 14, 2006

On Sarcasm and Irony    #

While we were waiting for the OSIS session to start this past Monday at the Identity Open Space, OwenDavis told us about a study he had read claiming that only 20 percent of people understand irony. Upon hearing this, JoaquinMiller shared this great joke:    (L69)

You had to be there.    (L6C)

/personal | Posted at 4:36pm

Nancy White on Joy    #

As I've said before, I bookmark a lot of NancyWhite's blog entries. She's one of the most insightful thinkers and practitioners on collaboration I know. This morning, she posted a wonderful piece (and picture) on joy:    (L65)

I had the pleasure of working with Nancy at the Collaborative Technologies Conference this past June and the pleasure of having dinner with her and her family when I visited Seattle earlier this year, so I have the necessary experience to say this. It's a joy to work with Nancy. It's a joy just to be around Nancy.    (L68)

/collaboration | Posted at 8:56am

Congratulations, Kaliya!    #

Congratulations to KaliyaHamlin, aka IdentityWoman, for winning the Digital ID World yearly award this past week. You've likely met Kaliya, although you may not know much about her. In short, Kaliya is one of the most unique individuals I've ever met, and she's a template for how to be successful in life. The template? Pursue your passions unabashedly, barriers be damned. She's neither a technologist, an academic, nor an entrepreneur (although she certainly has an entrepreneurial spirit). She made DigitalIdentity (among other things) her field not out of ivory tower interest, but because she realized that it would have a tremendous impact on the things she cared about in the world: spiritual activism and saving the world. How does she do it? Pure doggedness. She's not afraid to learn, and she's not afraid to be persistent, qualities that have helped her succeed.    (L61)

I vividly remember the first time we met at a PlaNetworkForum meeting in 2003. JimFournier had asked me to help integrate CollaborativeTools into the 2003 PlaNetworkConference experience, and I gave a brief talk at the forum describing what I was about and what my plans for the conference were. Kaliya approached me afterwards and gave me the names of three people I had to talk to. It's been like that ever since.    (L62)

It's been fantastic watching Kaliya grow and succeed over the past few years. Everyone in this community knows who she is, and I'm thrilled that she's getting this recognition so that the wider community realizes it as well.    (L63)

/collaboration/idcommons | Posted at 8:26am

Wed, Sep 13, 2006

Dodger Blue    #

It's once again time for my semi-regular digression from your regularly scheduled program. My friend, Elbert, wrote me this gem about the Dodgers' brutal loss to the Cubs last night:    (L5Y)

Comforting indeed. We're still in first place, though. Go Dodgers!    (L60)

/personal | Posted at 8:54am

Mon, Sep 11, 2006

Ph-Off and i-name Promotion    #

I'm at the Identity Open Space in SantaClara right now. Lots of good stuff scheduled today, including a session I'm co-leading on IdentityCommons, the next generation. Two things worth mentioning now. First, i-names have officially launched. A lot of folks purchased i-names through the IdentityCommons fundraiser way back when, and those will finally become useful. If you didn't have a chance to buy one at the special rate a few years ago, you can buy them at a special rate over the next three days: $5 for the first year of registration. Go to:    (L5U)

• http://iwantmynamenow.com/    (L5V)

and register before 7pm PT, this Thursday, September 14.    (L5W)

Second, AndyDale has whipped up a cool, anti-phishing FireFox plugin for OpenID users appropriately named, Ph-Off. OpenID and similar technologies rely on the notion of an IdentityBroker -- a third-party site that handles authentication. Because these IdentityBrokers will become increasingly important, we need good ways to be sure that things that look like our i-brokers actually are our i-brokers. When you configure Ph-Off, the toolbar turns green and you get a green thumbs up indicator when you visit your actual i-broker. It's simple and useful.    (L5X)

/collaboration/tools | Posted at 10:34am

Thu, Sep 07, 2006

HyperScope T-Shirts    #

I wanted to thank the HyperScope dev team for all their hard work these past six months, so I presented them all with T-shirts at the party. On the front is an AlanKay quote:    (L5M)

Here's the back:    (L5O)

   (L5P)

(Full-size image is available on Flickr.)    (L5Q)

As you can see, we are a serious bunch.    (L5R)

/tech/hyperscope | Posted at 2:48pm

HyperScope Release Party Thanks!    #

Thanks to all of you who came to the HyperScope Release Party on Tuesday night, and many thanks to JackPark and AdamCheyer of SRI for hosting, and to JeffRulifson for picking up the first round of drinks at Oasis. Some photos are up, with more to come and hopefully some video as well. My presentation is also up, HyperScope-enabled of course.    (L5I)

The past few days have been wild, with the blogosphere chattering about the release. I've said all along that we wanted to initiate a conversation about bigger and better things. Well, that conversation has started and then some, so now the onus is on me and my team to respond. Give me a few days to catch my breath, and I promise, I'll have plenty to say.    (L5J)

My friend, MinJungKim, wrote a really nice post about the party, about the BayArea, and about faith. I've been saying for a very long time that I'm a closet-optimist. A few years ago, I dropped the usual line, and someone responded, "You don't seem to be too far in the closet." Working on things that you care about and working with people who also care about their work, these things have a way of outing you.    (L5K)

The most gratifying thing about working on the HyperScope and all of BlueOxenAssociates' other projects is that the folks we work with care about the bigger picture. It's not about creating a nifty piece of software. It's not about throwing great events. It's not about writing cute essays. It's not about helping any single organization. It's about bettering the world we live in. When you're around people who truly believe that, it's intoxicating and it's motivating.    (L5L)

/tech/hyperscope | Posted at 12:42pm

Mon, Sep 04, 2006

Announcing HyperScope v1.0!    #

Last March, I announced the HyperScope project. Six months later, I'm proud to announce the release of HyperScope v1.0. More information is available from the HyperScope web site.    (L5E)

We're throwing a little release party at SRI in MenloPark tomorrow night to celebrate, and it looks like we're going to have a great crowd. We're also announcing a contest to write HyperScope file transformers. The prize? No less than lunch with the man himself, DougEngelbart. (Or, if you're not in the BayArea, then you'll win an autographed poster.)    (L5F)

It has been an intense and gratifying experience. I've known Doug for almost seven years now, and I've studied his work intensely for longer, and I still learned a tremendous amount. Much of that learning was the result of collaborating with an unbelievable team, including Doug, his daughter ChristinaEngelbart, JonathanCheyer, and the man who wrote the HyperScope code, BradNeuberg.    (L5G)

I'm looking forward to sharing much of that knowledge over the next few months. For now, play with the software and participate in our community. The best document (for now) to play with is Doug's classic 1962 paper, "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework."    (L5H)

/tech/hyperscope | Posted at 10:37pm

Fri, Sep 01, 2006

Welcome, Gail and Todd!    #

Those who follow my blog regularly know how much I respect, admire, and occasionally collaborate with GailTaylor. Some of her stories have trickled onto this blog, but they represent only a fraction of the thinking that she has helped inspire. Gail and her co-conspirator at TomorrowMakers (and son), ToddJohnston, have been long-time fans of Wikis, and they recently joined the blogosphere. If you're interested in deep thinking and great stories about collaboration, I strongly recommend subscribing to their new blog. As expected, there's already a rich set of stories and thinking there, with much more to come. Welcome, Gail and Todd!    (L5C)

While I'm at it, it's also worth mentioning MattTaylor's real-time notebook. Matt is another one of Gail's co-conspirators (and her husband), and his online journal has been available for many years. It's not technically a blog yet (no RSS or PermaLinks), so you can't subscribe to it, but I highly recommend perusing it. There's an amazing wealth of information there.    (L5D)

/collaboration | Posted at 9:54am

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