Monthly Archive for January, 2009

Netweaving, a few insights

Published on January 29, 2009 in commentary and conferences. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

art_and_heart_of_netweavingThe Atlanta Management Society put on a lunch seminar at the Emory Business School on Netweaving today. The inventor of the concept, Bob Littell, explained that if networking is about “What’s in it for me”, Netweaving is about “What can I do for you”. Thus it relies on reciprocity. Another key is introducing people to each other. He has encouraged Georgia State MBA students to read the Atlanta Business Chronicle and setup meetings between two news makers.

Two insights:

  • When in a networking situation, skip long spells of small-talk, initiate meaningful dialogue by asking questions such as, “What is the best business book you have read in the last few years, or what are the challenges and issues your industry is currently facing?” Small talk does not develop meaningful relationships.
  • Instead of just sending an email to a new contact saying “good to meet you” – send them a useful resource with your summary of the key takeaways.

If you are interested — there is the Netweaver skills assessment, and the Netweaver’s creed (pdf).

Requirements Engineering Design Model

Published on January 29, 2009 in commentary, discoveries and software. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

Designing software and websites is not at all like designing a building or city planning. This model is quite useful to help understand the process. I found this preparing for class.

Requirements Engineering Design Model

Requirements Engineering Design Model

Here is a summary of the model from the article:

Summary: Requirements engineering is an iterative exercise; often, the purpose of going through the exercise is to define the problem itself, and in the process, refine requirements. That is, an initially fuzzy requirement gets clarified through discussion, leading to other, more specific requirements. While the model has been motivated by requirements engineering, its components are generic enough to be applicable across various phases of the life cycle.

The model is from Ramesh and Dhar 1992
, based on the IBIS model by Kunz and Rittel. References below.

Kunz, W., & Rittel, H. W. J. (1970). Issues as Elements of Information Systems. Institute of Urban & Regional Development, University of California.

Ramesh, B., & Dhar, V. (1992). Supporting systems development by capturing deliberations during requirements engineering. Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on, 18(6), 498-510. doi: 10.1109/32.142872.

Is education improvement the new “Green”?

Published on January 23, 2009 in commentary, disruptive innovation and education. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

time-cover2I saw this post on Gartner’s Hype Cycle Blog. It points to several news sources which talk about how Time’s Earth Day issue was the third lowest selling of 2008, and how people are tired of hearing about Green issues.

As I read Clayton Christensen’s Disrupting Class book, and saw Rob Preston’s reaction to it here and again here — I can’t help but think that educational improvement issues are replacing “Green issues” in the press, and thus on their way up the hype cycle.

I recently ran across a disruptive university education technique — the unCourse or Open Studies class which is outlined here. It has been put into practice at BYU already… look at the unclass website.

Ann Majchrzak’s Wiki Research

Published on January 23, 2009 in commentary. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Ann Majchrzak presented some of her recent research at GSU yesterday. Fascinating work. She developed two constructs:

  • Expertise Sharers – those who freely contribute expert knowledge to a wiki
  • Expertise Integrators – those who build-on, synthesize, and convert expert knowledge to make a coherent wiki

While people definitely act as both expertise sharers and integrators, defining these two roles is quite helpful. It also ties in well to this article, which basically says that 1400 obsessed freaks (read: integrators) who all know each other, wrote the worlds largest encyclopedia for free over 4 years. Incredible.

I would guess they are all obsessive compulsive copy editors. I salute them.

How to speed up your PhD program

Published on January 16, 2009 in commentary. Closed Tags: , , .

thechronicleI read an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education today titled: Economists Ponder How to Help Speed Up Ph.D. Completion. It tells of Wendy Stock’s study (pdf) of 586 students who entered 27 doctoral programs in 2002.

After five years, 27 percent of the students had finished their degrees, 34 percent had dropped out, and 39 percent were still working toward their degrees.

Not too good! The study tried to tease out the explanatory factors:

Students are less likely to finish on time if the program does not offer every first-year student a shared office space. If a large number of students drop out in the first two years, the survivors are less likely to finish on time. And—to Ms. Stock’s surprise—students are more likely to finish on time if they enter as part of a large cohort.

I share office space with 6-8 students, nobody has dropped out since the center began six years ago, and my cohort has 4 students. Perhaps I am right on track. It also helps to be a part of 20-25 students who are also studying in the same discipline.

The implications of Informal Learning

Published on January 15, 2009 in commentary and open-innovation. Closed Tags: , , .

I was browsing Gartner’s Hype Cycle Blog, and found something interesting by Richard Straub at the Training Zone on Informal Learning.

He shares that in IBM’s 2008 survey of 1,100 CEOs:

more than 40% are changing their enterprise models to be more open and collaborative.

A significant number… Unfortunately he does not elaborate on this point, but rather the important role of Informal Learning in today’s world. The first comment states that Informal Learning is what we do everyday – learning on the job, in the process of “putting out fires”. I would agree, but I think Straub’s remark shows there is something more:

“We are on the threshold of a paradigm shift in learning. We have new learning environments and tools that enable us to access knowledge more effectively and to share and collaborate in better ways.”

Even though this sounds like a cheap management book, I agree with it. It seems that the relatively small number of people who are very active (look at Tim O’reilly)  in the blogosphere operate under a different paradigm than the mainstream. But, things are changing.

Post Doc Opportunity in Open Innovation

Published on January 13, 2009 in open-innovation. Closed Tags: , , .

luleaI saw on the AOM TIM Newsletter that there is a post doc opportunity in Open Innovation at Luleå University of Technology. I have not been looking much, but this is the first time I have seen a post-doc position specifically for Open Innovation research. Here it is:

The research division Entrepreneurship & Industrial Organisation at Luleå University of Technology (Sweden) focuses upon scholarly study of business development in commercial companies, especially development based on innovative products, services, process solutions or new ways of organising business activities. Its research team, consisting of 13 members (nine seniors and four PhD candidates) and three associated visiting professors/researchers, now announces a:

POST DOC POSITION IN MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION

Your background
We believe you have successfully completed and defended your PhD dissertation during the last three years in fields such as entrepreneurship, business administration, product development or innovation management.  You are curious to learn more about a Swedish academic environment and looking forward to cooperate with ambitious members of the division’s team in Luleå. Maybe you also would like to experience “a productive sabbatical” at Sweden’s northernmost university, close to the Arctic Circle.

Your field of research
Your main topic is technology management, product innovation and/or innovation system research, where we would like you to specifically contribute in projects aiming at developing our understanding of open innovation theory and/or network-related arrangements for business development. An option is to divide the scholarship into two parts, addressing (1) open innovation principles and practises, and (2) regional innovation systems and indicators for measuring the dynamics of innovation. This links to ongoing research at both the Entrepreneurship team and at the Industrial Organization team. 

Your skills and competences
We expect you to work within our team at the university for at least a period of six months. We require candidates to demonstrate high analytical skills as well as significant skills in research methods employed in the social sciences. You should be fluent in English, and enjoy both self-organized and team-based work tasks.  International publication in scholarly journals relevant to your research filed is highly valued. 

Position conditions
This is a scholarship position for one year (2009). It may also be divided into two positions with a six months contract for each position. Definitive terms for the position(s) will be negotiated.

Application
Your application should be sent to Luleå University of Technology, IES, Entrepreneurship & Industrial organisation, Att: Håkan Ylinenpää, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden, incoming before the December 15th 2009. Attach your full CV, at least two academic persons who may provide references, and possibly earlier work that could be of relevance. 

More information
Contact the head of division, professor Håkan Ylinenpää (phone +46-920-491210, e-mail hakan.ylinenpaa@ltu.se) for more information. Dr Johan Frishammar (phone +46-920-491407 e-mail johan.frishammar@ltu.se) will also be at your service for information.

Foxit Reader 3.0 Released: It is better than Acrobat Reader

Published on January 11, 2009 in software. Closed Tags: , .

Why Foxit Reader 3.0 is better than Adobe Acrobat for reading PDFs

Click to continue reading “Foxit Reader 3.0 Released: It is better than Acrobat Reader”

Three Paper Dissertation Format

Published on January 6, 2009 in discoveries and research. Closed Tags: .

The time is soon approaching when I will be writing and defending a dissertation proposal. I have usually liked the idea writing three smaller papers rather than one large monography of comparable size. Today I found a great comment on the AOM OCIS Student Blog which describes some great benefits of the three paper format.

Learning Styles and Problem-based learning

Published on January 2, 2009 in conferences and research. Closed Tags: , , .

I recently presented some research at the IAIM conference in Paris. The central research question was:iaim-logo1

Can satisfaction with problem-based learning be explained by students’ learning styles?

A few people at the conference were interested in a few instruments I mentioned:

The paper is available in the proceedings.