Endless Knots

Antioch College, Chapter 9763

For those following the Antioch College story, this update. Frankly, one could devote a whole website to it. Indeed, several have. A Boston area Antioch Alumni Association (alumni site here) meeting last Sunday prompts this post.

Brief recap: In June '07, the Antioch University Board of Trustees, of which Antioch College is the home of the brand and the original progenitor of its far-flung tentacles (there were once nearly 40 mini-Antiochs around the country), voted to suspend operations at the college for lack of funds. Enrollment had plummeted in the past few years (down from 2000 when I graduated in 1970 to less than a tenth of that this year). I've done a bunch of posts about this (The little college that might, among others), about the finger-pointing, about the outcry from the college alumni who revere their memories of their time there (as do I), about the immature reaction of some who chose to scapegoat others, some of those scapegoaters also having served in positions where they were responsible for creating the conditions that led to the college shutting down.

Comes then the outcry and the pledge by alums to fill the coffers. Good news, lots of energy to save the place, alums meeting everywhere to figure out how to turn demise into delight. Thrilling to see what my fellow alums were capable of - and how great the affection for this national educational treasure. Antioch's storied history is recorded in many places but in short it was the first college in the US to offer work/study, a unique form of experiential education that taught us how to work and learn at the same time. I've written elsewhere here about my co-op jobs. Horace Mann, the great educator who lived here in Newton, Mass., was the first president of Antioch College (1852); Arthur Morgan, Antioch's president for decades, instituted the co-op program. Then Antioch pioneered a massive junior-year-abroad program (Antioch Education Abroad) and I benefited from that too as the first woman from the college to go to Oxford as an undergrad.

Enough about how great it was.

Following their surprise announcement to suspend college operations, the university trustees seemed to hear what the alums were saying and, working with the Alumni Board, agreed in November to reverse the suspension. Then the unexpected yet again. The Alumni Board rejected the Board's suspension because the big-dollar donors were unwilling to fork over their funds (some had only made pledges) unless the college had complete autonomy from the University. Complete autonomy, meaning its own Board of Directors bearing no formal ties to the University. And at about the same time, a new nonprofit formed, Antioch College Continuation Corporation (link will take you to its most recent communication).

What struck me again at Sunday's alumni meeting was the fervor with which nearly everyone spoke, their love for the college and their desire to revive it. Most had a "hot button" issue, whether the way the original decision was communicated or the location of a new building for one of the Antioch graduate campuses located in the same town as the college, or why the other adult campuses (there are five around the country) couldn't just make up the college's deficit (they don't have the funds). But all agreed that Antioch College is a national treasure and that it must be preserved.

Me too. Among the most eloquent was Everett Mendelsohn, another of our esteemed alums and professor of the History of Science at Harvard, who has recommended that we convene the very the best minds in education - and among the alums - to plot the college's future. Funds are critical, yes, but a vision for an Antioch for the 21st-century is fundamental to attracting the brightest students and retaining the best faculty.

"A credible, persuasive case"

From time to time, we receive nice notes from our clients. A recent one from the senior executive of a very large global organization made us feel especially good. So I'm crowing a little. Indulge me, please:

Dear Jessica and Jeff --

Thank you for taking the time to lead a stimulating discussion about the transformational power of teams and networks at the [organization's name] Knowledge Management conference.

The insights you presented added tremendous value to our efforts to be the intellectual hub of [organization's name] Knowledge Management proponent. You made a credible, persuasive case for reinforcing hierarchy through networks of teams.

I appreciate the extensive work you're done with [organization's name] over the years and look forward to continuing our relationship.

Sincerely...

And back to work. Made our day.

Social networking in the Bible

Someone has done it.

Simulating work in the B-schools

Thoughtful piece by Francesca Di Meglio in Business Week on business schools using online simulations with students: "Virtual Workplaces in the Classroom." With students who've grown up gaming - and clever technology available, the B-schools are introducing simulations for hands-on learning. (Click for "Business Education, Enhanced with Technology," a slide show showing how simulations, complete with photos of students using them - kudos to folks who put this together).

Mindful that this could lead to isolation with students sitting at their computers instead of getting together to discuss the classic B-school icon, the case study, the schools are addressing that too:

Simulations aren't capable of replacing case studies just yet, though. Critics point out that having students work on a computer isolates them and does not provide enough interaction with other people, something a manager has to be able to do successfully. Case studies are also easier and cheaper to develop...

So developers are starting to create case studies and simulations to be used in combination. Harvard Business School Publishing, known for its case studies, recently launched its first online simulation on pricing, and this spring is planning to unveil an online simulation on service and operation management designed to go hand in hand with one of its best-selling case studies.

Both and. Together and apart. Virtual and face-to-face. Always makes me happy when organizations pay attention to the two. Our old saw on this:

Isolate to concentrate, congregate to collaborate.

The Liar's Diary - Blog Day

This post is about the power of blogging. Today more than 300 (not sure how many more by this point) bloggers are teaming up to promote the release in paperback of The Liar's Diary by Patry Francis. Susan Henderson, writer, editor, friend extraordinaire to Patry Francis, is part of the organizing effort that is taking advantage of the incredible power of links among bloggers to mark this as a day in blogging history.

Every writer deserves a little help from her friends; Patry's dogged determination to be published, especially so, as she was working the dog jobs many writers turn to while their imaginations spin and their alarm clocks wake them earlier and earlier each morning until her fate turned. Her book was picked up but then her diagnosis with an aggressive cancer just as she signed her first contract. Thus, hundreds of us are hitting the keys today to spread the word. Her publisher, Penguin (for one book, also Jeff's and mine) is offering a discount through this blogging initiative.

From Sue Henderson's site:

Here are links to THE LIAR'S DIARY at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's. You can also buy directly from Penguin to save 15% (after you add the book to your cart, just enter the word PATRY in the coupon code field and click ‘update cart’ to activate the discount).

Thank you, Sue, and all the other creative minds behind this initiative. May we see the book right at the top of the charts and happy blogging day to you, Patry.

Update: The number of bloggers covering this story is growing by the hour. Absolutely incredible to watch this roll through the 'sphere.

The virtual 48 hours

OK, so I literally never thought of this when I signed the contract. Happily asked to consult to a prestigious educational institution on the design of its new course on virtual teams. My role on the team of eight is "subject matter expert," which basically means I'm supplying the content (in point of fact, NetAge signed the contract and I'm the NetAge person working on supplying NetAge content, just to be absolutely clear).

There's a short window for pulling all this together, which means they want fast turnaround when the "developer" or the "instructional designer" or the "portfolio manager" or the "graphic designer" or the "project manager" (you get the idea, team of 8) needs help. No problem, I thought. I'm quick, am generally accessible online (ask my family or my addiction counselor - jussst kidding), and what could happen that would take me out of a 48-hour response time?

However, just to be safe, I specified in the contract that there were certain periods when this provision would not apply, times when I know I'm traveling in the months to come.

Then yesterday morning, Sunday that is, I got my first request for info, which is the majority of the material I have to submit. Pages and pages, way too much for even Ms. Speedy Fingers to return in 48 hours even if I didn't already have a full plate and several other deadlines looming.

Got me thinking about what I hadn't considered before signing the contract: When does the 48-hour clock start ticking in the virtual world? When the email is sent to me? When I open it? When I respond? Do weekends count? Holidays? Emails sent at 11 at night or 3 in the morning (yes, I've received such from other clients, especially those on different clocks altogether)? What if it's sent from tomorrow (someone in New Zealand, for example)?

Anyone else had to think about this? I've suggested that we include this dilemma in the course itself. And just for the record, the developer understands completely and is not expecting anything unreasonable from me.

Returning to Copenhagen

Photo from A.R.T. site (thanks)

Except for listening to the same music obsessively - I fear I've posted about my fixation on a certain Sting song and how that led to my meeting him - I'm not given to watching the same movie over and over or returning to the theatre to see a play again.

Last night, my hubby and I returned to Copenhagen, Michael Frayn's masterpiece. As per my previous post on this play at Boston's A.R.T., I was again astonished at the depth of this work. We also had much better seats this time, center, six rows up, and I mean center. Absolutely perfect for engagement with the actors without feeling as if they're looking at you personally (disturbing) yet close enough to detect the small nuances of their performances.

The play is very intellectual with its many references to physics and very moral with its central dilemma. Did out of the heads of these two men - Nils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg - the whole of existence rest, as Margrethe Bohr says near the end of the play? Bohr advised the physicists at Los Alamos who successfully, if that word can be used in regard to the atom bomb, created this horrific weapon; Heisenberg tried and failed with the Germans.

As I've covered the play once before, and Patti Anklam has extended one core concept of the play - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - to the domain of social networks, I'll leave it here for now except to say this: Karen MacDonald's performance in the second act last night was astonishing. There's a moment when she erupts at Heisenberg, calling him to account for his complicity and his narcissism, that is so chilling that I can still feel it writing this. The play only runs for one more week. Go.

PS: I still want Margrethe's dress. This picture doesn't do it justice; the drape in the back, women readers is just gorgeous. And the peek-toe shoes aren't bad either.

Could BookCrossing lead to world peace?

How many meetings have you been in where someone says sarcastically (and as if you're the organization's idiot): "Well" (huff, huff) "we're not trying to solve world peace?" Well, huff, huff, some of us--call me naive--would like to. Thus, the second in my new series on things that might (see "Why Twitter may lead to world peace").

Thanks to Nathan Brandsford's cheeky and helpful blog for writers (he's a literary agent at Curtis Brown), I've learned about BookCrossing, the brainchild of Ron Hornbaker. In the effort to "make the whole world a library," Ron came up with the idea to create a website where people register books (which means obtaining a "BCID"--BookCrossing ID) then leave them in public places. Someone else picks up the book, notices that it's got this special marking on it, then goes to the BookCrossing site and posts where the book has traveled. That person, in turn, drops it elsewhere and long/short in its six or so short years of existence, BookCrossing has registered 633,242 (with me) members who've registered some 4.5 million books traveling around the world.

Of course, there is a huge online community that's grown up around BookCrossing with members stretching from the Antarctic to the Arctic (may they forever remain cold).

Incredibly, the second most traveled book? A Passage to India by EM Forster, within which is my favorite phrase from all literature: "Only connect," my Rx for world peace.

How dumb are we? Nova says pretty dumb

Nova Spivack, one of the smarter people I've met, has a thoughtful post calling for an end to artificial intelligence and recommending that we replace it with "Artificial Stupidity: The Next Big Thing." Why? Because:

We are terrible organizers. We are lazy, messy, inconsistent, and we make all kinds of errors by accident. We are terrible at tagging and linking as well, it turns out. We are terrible at coordinating or tracking multiple things at once because we are easily overloaded and we can really only do one thing well at a time. These kinds of tasks are just not what our brains are good at. That's what computers are for - or should be for at least.

Humans are really good at higher level cognition: complex thinking, decisionmaking, learning, teaching, inventing, expressing, exploring, planning, reasoning, sensemaking, and problem solving -- but we are just terrible at managing email, or making sense of the Web. Let's play to our strengths and use computers to compensate for our weaknesses.

I agree. Just take a look at my desk. And table. and the desk next to that. Enough said. I'm pretty dubm.

Ice and pain

It's been pretty cold, snowy, rainy, and icy here in Boston of late, leaving a lot of the dreaded sheet of slipperiness in odd patches around town. I fell last night and though I didn't hurt myself at all it does prompt me to post this note, reminding everyone to keep their eyes open. I slipped in my driveway in the dark. I hadn't come far enough in to set off the motion detector.

That said, my very close friend did take a terrible spill during an ice hockey game last Saturday, resulting in a broken femur, surgery, and a lot of pain. He fell when a player on the opposing team "checked" him, which is not supposed to happen in Saturday morning play among adults of a certain age. So it's dangerous, this ice. Be careful and make sure, if you're a hockey player, that the rules have been spoken and acknowledged by all before play begins.