James Drogan

More from Boing Boing this morning.

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My current teaching assignment at SUNY Maritime College includes a graduate level course, Management Information Systems in Transportation (syllabi for this course may be found in What I am Teaching).  One of the issues we take up is the ethics of information technology.

Browsing Boing Boing this morning, I came across Ethical guidelines for a world of invisible, endless machines which, in turn, led me the last chapter of Adam Greenfield's book, Everyware: The dawning age of ubiquitous computing (New Riders Press, first edition, March 10, 2006).

Most of the discussions of the ethics of information technology seems to me to be, as might be the case in Greenfield's book, centered on the individual.  What we try do in my course is extend this notion of ethics to the enterprise and the manner in which it interrelates to other enterprises.  We've not come up with any good answers after two iterations of the course, but I think we're getting better at getting our minds around the issue.

Re Conversations with Dave

Here is an abstract view of a business system, say a logistics system.

 

My hypotheses:

1. Processes are turned into applications, information into databases, and people into users (I recognize there are other sorts of users of there) when one applies information technology to improve the performance of a business.
   
   
2. Processes, application, information, and data are widely known and shared across an industry. That is, there are few secrets in these areas.
   
   
3. People (integrity, intellect, energy, and imagination) are widely known, but not shared (i.e., there is only one of everyone) across an industry. People are the differentiator.
   
   
4. Tesco and Wal-Mart thrive because of the people they attract and retain. Imagine a three dimensional space: value enabled by technology investment, value enabled by people, and business results. I suspect that Tesco and Wal-Mart are somewhere towards the upper right back corner of the space.

Last night I attended an interesting talk at the Westport Public Library.  The subject was "Learning in a Digital Age" and the speaker was John Seely Brown.

As I heard it, Brown's thesis is that processes that combine imagination, intellect, and socialization and are enabled by technology can produce a higher quality learning experiences.  He particularly focused on "kids" and used the example of remix or mashups to illustrate his point.

By higher quality learning experience I take Brown to mean the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and experiences more directly relevant to the needs of the learner and presented in such a way that that the learner becomes passionately involved.  He made a very strong case for World of Warcraft as a mechanism for teaching leadership skills.

It seems to me that "directly relevant to the needs of the learner" has a different meaning to Brown.  I recall seeing something on his slides which I note as "pull education" or "education on demand."  This is in contrast to the typical "push" approach where the learner is subjected to that which the institution teaches.  This is related to the a June 19, 2005 entry in this blog where I note what I called The Gap Hypothesis.  In short, Brown argues that relevance is increasingly in the mind of the learner and that there are emerging channels for satisfying this need for relevance that may render traditional approachs to education untenable. 

A very provocative evening, somewhat typical of what happens at the Westport Public Library Technology Talk sessions. 

In early February I acquired an iPod Nano for the principal purpose of listening to podcasts on my way to and from the college.  First on my list were those relating to the World Economic Forum.

I then added IT Conversations.  These are perhaps my favorites.  Wide-ranging, eclectic, mind-stretching.  Two of my recent favorites are:

Bruce Sterling: The Internet of Things (Rating: 3.5)
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In the future we may be able to find lost keys with a simple Google search.  Science fiction writer Bruce Sterling imagines how physical objects will be part of the Internet as they become trackable in space and time. Bruce discusses the theoretical and technical challenges that we face as we try and think about and develop the Internet of Things. From Spimes to Thing Links to Blogjects, the terminology and verbal framing devices currently being used are pulled apart in this keynote address from the 2006 O'Reilly  Emerging Technology Conference.

and

Dr. Daniel Amen: SPECT and the Future of Mental Health (Rating: 4.8)

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Dr. Daniel Amen has been using brain imaging in clinical practice for the past fourteen years. His clinics now have the world's largest database of brain scans related to behavior. The work has given him many insights on better ways to improve patient care and prevent illnesses that are so expensive to our society. In this entertaining keynote from Accelerating Change 2005, Dr. Amen shares the lessons he has learned from imaging, the roadblocks to further progress, and ways to use this technology to benefit society in general.

Doc Searls Weblog has taken me to this picture this morning.

Quite striking and evocative. 

The May 25 drop from The Economist includes the following:

"The World Bank decided it still has a role to play in China, a country with dollars aplenty, but also with more impoverished people than any other country except India. The bank will lend up to $1.5 billion a year over the next five years."

What is going on here? 

In Foreign Currency Piles Up in China: Reserve Fund Soared to Record in 2005 China is noted as having a foreign currency reserve of $819 billion. 

Good morning, Charlie.

Congratulations on a nice piece.

What keeps America from coming to grip with the issues you discuss?  I would hate to think we need another tragic event to focus our attention.

I'm reminded, in passing, of the September 1994 TOWARD A NATIONAL INTERMODAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM FINAL REPORT of the National Commission on Intermodal Transportation.  As best I can tell that report had no impact whatsoever on America's national transportation system.

Of late, responsible parities have been bemoaning the port and inland capacity.  Eric Johnson, in the June 2006 issue of American Shipper, writes of Michael Gallis and his views of America's transportation infrastructure.  Various top executives in the shipping community have sounded the same warnings.

Apparently those who are capable of fomenting change haven't gotten the message.

Perhaps informed speculation on ways to overcome the balkanization of American transportation would lead to pungent recommendations that would attract appropriate attention and action.

Re Conversations with Dave

Dave brings to my attention this article on Senator McCain's remarks at the New School. 

My reaction?

The Age of the Decline of Civility aka When in Doubt, Shout.

The New School experience does not bode well for the emerging generation of leaders. There are, of course, or at any rate I would expect there to be, exceptions to my conclusion. I don't mean to tar all with the same brush. I wonder whether, in the comfort of Starbucks or the local pub and outside the all-seeing eye of the camera and all-hearing ear of the recorder, the students treat one another as callously. I can imagine them drinking alone were that the case.

I don't know whether I would agree that students are"...being trained in self-deception and the substitution of ideology for facts and testable theory."

I would agree, however, that students are "...ill-prepared to deal with the world As It Is." [sic]

However, McCain at the New School represents one of those significant and contemporary teaching moments that ought to be explored in the classrooms of America. 

This post is prompted by a front page article in the May 13 edition of the New York Times titled "Bush to Unveil Plan to Tighten Border Controls."

Two parts of the article struck me.

The first

"demands to stem the inflow of undocumented workers across the border with Mexico and the desire of American employers to have reliable access to a low-wage work force."

and

"The White House was awaiting word from the major networks as to whether they would all carry his address on Monday evening during their crucial sweeps rating period used to set advertising prices. NBC and Fox have agreed to take the address, as have the cable news networks; CBS and ABC are still considering whether they will upset their schedules to take the address."

I am reminded of the Emma Lazurus poem that says

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

In the first case it would seem the providing opportunity for people to improve the quality of their lives is no longer a core part of the American values.  We are forgetting that we, for the most part, are immigrants or descendents of immigrants.  We are forgetting that which has made us great.  We have embraced hubris and are becoming one, large, gated community.

Is this really the image we wish to project to the world?  Is this really the way to spread the democratic ideals we espouse?

In the second case we seem to be allowing the media to decide how and when the government will communicate with the governed.  This, particularly the reason given in the article, is simply outrageous.  I am for freedom of the media, but I also demand responsibility of the media.