eekim.com: EEK Speaks

Mon, Oct 06, 2008

High-Performance Knowledge Work: Practice, Practice, Practice #

I talk a lot about the goal of being a "high-performance" knowledge worker, of achieving "high-performance" collaboration. I'm certainly not the only one. But what does it truly mean to be "high-performance"? (N24)

One way to answer that question is to think about fields where the answer is more clear, such as sports, music, and medicine. Last year, I wrote: (N25)

Medicine is a great model for what's in store for other types of KnowledgeWorkers in this rapidly changing world. I know very few KnowledgeWorkers who spend as much time learning and honing their skills as doctors do. Can you imagine what we could accomplish in this world if we did? T (N26)

My friend, LisaChu, founded a violin school for kids, and she often blogs about the discipline required to achieve greatness. Recently, she quoted Brian Johnson, who wrote, "The higher the greats climb, the GREATER the need for practice." (N27)

Think about the work that world-class athletes, musicians, and doctors put in to stay on top of their game: the discipline, the training, the emphasis on fundamentals. Do any of us KnowledgeWorkers really apply the same standards to our crafts? (N28)

/collaboration | Posted at 11:08pm

ACM: The Curse of Professional Societies #

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the professional society for computer scientists, and it is one of my favorite examples of how organizational networks often impede their own missions. I was reminded of this just now, as I attempted to download a paper from its Digital Library. (N1Y)

Although you can search its archives for free, you usually have to pay to download individual articles. No problem. I was more than willing to shell out $5 to $10 for an article I knew I wanted, thus saving me the convenience of driving down to PaloAlto to copy the article from the Stanford library. But when I tried to download this particular article, I discovered that not only would I have to pay for the article, I would also have to pay an annual subscription fee for the ACM Digital Library -- a cool $99 a year. (N1Z)

What's wrong with this? Here's ACM's self-description (emphasis added): (N20)

ACM is widely recognized as the premier membership organization for computing professionals, delivering resources that advance computing as a science and a profession; enable professional development; and promote policies and research that benefit society. (N21)

If your goal is to advance computing as a profession, why would you put 50 years worth of knowledge behind a firewall? The reasoning, of course, is revenue. But if your revenue model is conflicting with your mission, isn't it time to reexamine the model? (N22)

Computer science is special because of its living history. However, as sciences go, today's programmers and computer scientists are more ignorant of their history than pretty much any other science. If the ACM wanted to advance the profession, it would do its part to make that history more accessible, not less. (N23)

/collaboration | Posted at 10:45pm